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The  Breakdown  of  the 
Gothenburg  System 


By  ERNEST  GORDON 


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The  Breakdown  of  the 
Gothenburg  System 


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THE 

BREAKDOWN  OF  THE 

GOTHENBURG 

SYSTEM 

By  ERNEST  GORDON 


"The  Gothenburg  procedure  of  b'vu.:^  np'i)^.e  dr.nkMcpi,  suppressing  some  and 
operating  others,  has  naturally  from  our  point  of  vieiv  no  justification.  It  suits  only 
the  schemes  of  (hose  who  believe  in  'moderation'  and  who  will  neither  work  for  nor 
understand  a  thoroughgoing  reform.  It  goes  tvithout  saying  that  for  all  clear  heads 
universal  prohibition  is  the  end  aimed  at." — Dr.  Matthaei,  Physician  on  the  Gen- 
eral Staff  of  the  German  Army. 

"We  have  a  good  army  for  reviews  but  a  bad  one  for  war. "—Persian  Official 
to  Lord  Curzon. 

"What  medicine  cannot  touch,  iron  will  heal,  and  what  iron  ijoill  not  heal,  fire 
will  cure." 


Published  by 
The  National  Temperance  Society  and  Publication  House, 

373   Fourth  Ave.,  New  York. 


gO'3'*- 


*\gi 


Copyright  1911 
By  The  American  Issue  Publishing  Company 

Publication  rights  transferred  to  The   National   Temperance   Society 
and  Publication  House. 


NOTE— The  wordt  Satnlag  and  Bo(a£  are  the  Norwegian  and  Swedish  syn- 
onyms respectively  for  the  word  Company.  They  are  loosely  used  for  drink-selling 
places. 


The  Breakdown  of  the 
Gothenburg  System 


CHAPTER  I. 
Introduction. 

There  have  been  hitherto  two  classes  of  reporters 
on  the  Gothenburg  System, — first,  the  theoretical  who 
explain  how  admirably  it  must  work  because  of  the 
ingenuity  of  its  mechanism; — secondly,  the  statistical 
who  seek  to  prove  by  figures  of  declining  consumption 
that  it  does  work,  all  the  while  neglecting  the  historical 
and  prohibitory  factors  to  which  these  results  are 
chiefly  due. 

What  is  now  needed  is  a  third  kind  of  reporter 
who  will  show  how  little  satisfactorily  the  System 
actually  does  work.  He  has  but  to  live  in  any  Scan- 
dinavian community,  small  or  large,  where  the  Com- 
pany shop  is  planted  and  to  snap  from  time  to  time  his 
mental  kodak.  He  will  soon  get  material  enough  to 
disprove  the  fairest  Gothenburg  theory. 

This  little  booklet  is  an  assortment  of  such  pic- 
tures which  have  been  sent  at  intervals  to  American 
papers.    It  has  nothing  in  it  of  Wordsworth^s 


270596 


lo  THE  GOTHENBURG  SYSTEM 

"keen  research, 
Unbiased,  unbewildered,  and  unmoved." 

The  book  which  will  prove  scientifically  the  fail- 
ure of  the  Gothenburg  System  to  solve  the  drink 
problem  is  yet  to  be  written.  This  is  published  as  a 
possible  stop-gap  until  such  a  work  appears.  It  is 
hoped  that  it  may  give  pause  to  any  well-meaning  ef- 
forts to  transplant  this  institution  to  America  as  a 
substitute  for  prohibition. 

The  great  advantage  of  prohibitory  legislation  is 
that  it  sooner  or  later  weans  the  population  as  a  whole 
from  the  drink  habit.  Anyone  who  has  lived  a  few 
years  in  Northern  New  England  would  be  convinced 
of  this  if  he  but  recalled  the  conditions  prevailing 
there  fifty  years  ago  when  drink  was  used  on  harvest 
fields,  at  barn  raisings,  at  ''musters,"  at  weddings,  at 
funerals,  at  church-dedications  and  at  every  other 
function  of  social  life.  The  enemies  of  prohibition  in- 
sist that  alcoholism  is  but  driven  under.  The  Com- 
mittee of  Fifty,  for  example,  claims  that  this  concealed 
alcoholism  is  indicated  by  an  excessive  consumption 
of  patent  medicines  in  prohibition  areas.  Such  an 
abnormal  consumption  is,  however,  but  a  figment  of 
these  investigators'  mythopoeic  fancy.  There  is  abso- 
lutely no  statistical  or  other  reliable  proof  of  its  ex- 
istence. Turning  to  Scandinavia  on  the  other  hand 
one  finds  the  Company  drink-shop  continually  educat- 
ing new  relays  into  the  drink  habit.    And  the  substi- 


THE  GOTHENBURG  SYSTEM  ii 

tiites  which  do  not  play  an  important  role  in  Maine 
appear  here  alongside  of  the  ordinary  drinks.  The 
sequence  is  first  beer,  then  spirits,  then  every  imagin- 
able villanous  compound.  Thus  one  reads  in  a 
Swedish  newspaper  of  a  little  town  in  Darlecarlia,  that 
charming,  picturesque,  and  characteristically  Swedish 
province,  where  the  angry  people  get  together  in  mass- 
meeting  to  protest  against  the  sale  by  the  local  drug- 
gist of  lyptol,  salubrin,  and  eau  de  cologne  as  bev- 
erages. Indeed  the  abnormal  appetite  developed  by 
the  Gothenburg  drink-shop  has  carried  drinkers  so  far 
that  Swedish  chemists  are  considering  the  desirability 
of  putting  emetics  in  denatured  spirits. ^'^     The  1909 

(O  Socialists  in  Molnlycke  (28  Feb.  '09)  consider  the 
following  question:  "What  can  be  done  to  prevent  the  use 
of  denatured   spirits  as  a   drink?" 

It  was  reported  "that  denatured  spirits  were  widely  used 
for  this  purpose  among  working  men  and  that  the  conse- 
quences were  ruinous  to  body  and  brain  in  an  extreme  de- 
gree." 

Mr.  Karlsson  of  Gothenburg  offered  (1910)  to  the 
Swedish  parliament  a  bill  to  regulate  the  sale  of  denatured 
spirits.  He  wants  the  amount  sold  to  a  given  person  limited, 
the  hours  of  sale  reduced  and  the  number  of  selling  places 
cut  down.  He  said  in  his  speech  introducing  the  measure: 
"We  have  sad  experiences  in  Gothenburg  and  the  neighbor- 
ing parishes  where  furniture  is  made  in  hundreds  of  homes, 
of  the  way  in  which  denatured  spirits  are  used  for  intoxicating 
drink.  This  abuse  has  so  developed  that  the  guardians  of  the 
poor  in  Gothenburg  are  urging  thorough  reform  in  the 
matter  of  selling  industrial  alcohol."  That  there  is  need  of 
government  action  appears  from  the  last  report  of  the  chief 


12  THE  GOTHENBURG  SYSTEM 

report  of  the  Christiania  Samlag  says  (p.  17)  :  "In 
spite  of  a  sharp  control  on  the  part  of  the  police — 
uniformed  and  secret — it  has  not  been  possible  to  over- 
cqme  the  illegal  sale  of  brandy  and  of  furniture  polish 
for  drinking  purposes.  This  illegal  brandy  sale  seems 
almost  to  increase  on  the  streets  and  in  doorways, 
although  many  have  been  brought  before  the  courts 
and  very  heavy  fines  have  been  imposed  as  a  rule. 
Denatured  spirits  also  are  still  used  for  intoxication  in 
various  parts  of  the  city."  And  within  ten  days  of  the 
writing  an  order  has  been  issued  by  the  Norwegian 
government  to  all  sellers  of  furniture  polish  in  Christi- 
ania to  desist  from  selling  that  article  at  hours  when 
the  Company  shops  are  closed.  Would  such  an  order 
be  required  in  Portland,  Maine,  or  Fargo,  N.  Dakota? 
The  Gothenburg  System  while  constantly  renew- 
ing the  constituency  of  alcoholists  furnishes  no  effect- 
ive guarantee  against  illegal  selling.  Indeed  the  ful- 
filling of  its  first  malign  function  clears  the  way  for  the 
last  named  phenomenon.  Students  of  the  alcohol 
problem  are  beginning  to  realize  that,  paradoxical  as 
it  may  seem  at  first  thought,  illicit  sale  flourishes 
where  the  sale  of  drink  is  legalized  even  more  than  in 
prohibitory  places.  In  Philadelphia,  for  example, 
the  number  of  speak-easies  according  to  the  Committee 


provincial  physician  of  Gavleborg  province.  He  declares 
that  cologne,  salubrin,  etc.,  are  bought  and  drunk  to  a  very 
wide  extent  and  that  the  vice  is  spreading,  especially  in 
Halsingland. 


THE  GOTHENBURG  SYSTEM         .     13 

of  Fifty  "exceeds  by  not  a  little  that  of  licensed 
dealers" — in  other  words,  is  probably  greater  than  the 
entire  number  of  all  such  illicit  sellers  in  the  older  pro- 
hibition states,  Maine,  Kansas  and  North  Dakota.  If 
the  illicit  sellers  in  all  the  "wet"  sections  of  the  United 
States  were  counted  up  they  would  presumably  out- 
number relatively  those  of  the  "dry"  regions.  This, 
too,  must  be  remembered,  that  as  time  passes  the 
number  of  alcohol  users  in  prohibitory  regions  tends 
to  decrease  by  death  and  with  them  the  illicit  sale 
which  ministered  to  them.  The  eminent  statistician. 
Prof.  Harald  Westergaard  of  the  University  of 
Copenhagen,  gives  an  illustration  from  Denmark  of  the 
same  sociological  law.  He  declares  from  a  study  of 
1,495  replies  to  his  question  as  to  the  extent  of 
illegal  selling  that  Sjaelland,  the  province  with  by 
far  the  largest  number  of  legal  drink  shops,  has 
illicit  drinking-places  in  33  per  cent  of  its  parishes ; 
Fyn  and  the  other  islands  in  19  per  cent ;  and  Jylland, 
where  temperance  sentiment  is  strongest  and  drink- 
shops  relatively  fewest,  in  but  1 1  per  cent  of  the 
parishes.^^^ 

Legal  sale  does  not  therefore  as  a  rule  diminish 
illegal  sale.  This  is  so  under  the  Company  System  as 
under  the  license  systems  of  America  and  Denmark. 
"Morgenbladet"  of  Christiania  remarked  the  other  day 
that  in  the  central  quarter  of  that  city  it  seemed  as  if 
the  stair-cases  and  hallways  had  become  quite  general- 

(2)  "Denmarks  Kultur  ved  Aar  1900"  p.  143-144. 


14  THE  GOTHENBURG  SYSTEM 

ly  the  business  places  of  boot-leggers.  But  there  is  no 
lack  of  drinking  facilities  in  the  Norwegian  capital. 
"It  has  been  proved,"  says  Dr.  Scharflfenberg,  an 
authority  on  the  Gothenburg  System,  ''that  there  were 
more  illegal  sales  in  Frederikstad  after  the  re-establish- 
ment of  the  Samlag  in  1904  than  in  1903  when  it  was 
closed."  Indeed  the  Gothenburg  System  itself  has 
been  known  to  have  had  a  finger  in  unlawful  business 
and  on  no  small  scale.  Thus  some  time  ago  it  was 
discovered  that  the  Artisans  Union  of  Trondhjem, 
which  was  selling  drink  without  legal  permission,  ob- 
tained its  supplies  to  the  extent  of  18,000  kroner  yearly 
from  the  Gothenburg  drink-shop.  The  management 
confessed  that  it  was  well  aware  that  it  was  breaking 
the  law. 

The  fact  so  often  dwelt  on  that  the  income  of  the 
Company  stockholders  is  severely  limited  does  not 
work  out  as  one  theoretically  would  suppose  it  would. 
Business  men  like  to  see  the  enterprise  they  manage 
prosper  even  though  they  do  not  profit  greatly  by  it. 
It  is  possible,  however,  that  they  do  profit  in  certain 
questionable  ways.  Dr.  ScharfiFenberg  hints  at  com- 
missions from  the  distillers  who  supply  the  companies, 
New  Years  gifts,  and  various  forms  of  tantieme.  ^^^ 
The  writer  picked  up  recently  from  the  seat  of  a  rail- 
way carriage  in  Sweden  a  local  paper  which  displayed 
on  its  (ront  page  the  annual  report  of  the  Gothenburg 

(iT    Afholds  Politiske  Sporgsmaal  No.  2,  p.  70.     By  Dr. 
Johan  Scharffenberg. 


THE  GOTHENBURG  SYSTEM  15 

shop  at  Kungsbacka.    Four  things  were  noticeable  : 

First :  The  men  who  directed  the  affair  and  whose 
names  were  given  at  the  top  all  belonged  to  "the 
classes."  They  were  bankers,  landed  proprietors, 
merchants  and  consuls.  In  other  words  this  is  a  pet 
institution  of  the  rich. 

Second:  Of  the  expenses  just  one  quarter  was 
salary  paid  to  the  directors.  This  is  no  doubt  a  potent 
reason  why  such  believe  in  the  success  of  their  institu- 
tion. 

Third:  Of  the  sales  only  between  one-fifth  and 
one-sixth  were  in  drinks.  Nearly  five-sixths  of  the 
value  sold  was  bottled.  When  a  man  buys  a  bottle  of 
brandy  there  is  no  automatic  brake  which  will  come 
into  action  to  keep  him  sober.  So  far  as  five-sixths  of 
the  trade  of  this  institution  is  concerned,  therefore,  all 
the  safe-guards  which  are  claimed  for  it  are  inoperative. 

Fourth:  The  second  column  of  the  report  was 
almost  entirely  taken  up  with  attempts  to  explain  a 
considerable  shortage  in  the  stock  on  hand.  This  sug- 
gests scandal  such  as  seems  invariably  to  attach  to  the 
alcohol  traffic. 

That  in  practise  the  Gothenburg  System  has 
miserably  failed  to  produce  ideal  results  is  patent  on 
every  hand.  One  last  example.  The  tobacconist  shops 
display  in  their  windows  this  week  a  full  page  cartoon 
of  "Vikingen,"  the  Norwegian  comic  paper,  in  which 
the  new  recruits  leaving  for  Gardemoen,  the  army's 
central  camp  and  drill  grounds,  are  represented  as  be- 


I6  THE  GOTHENBURG  SYSTEM 

ing  carried  by  their  officers  into  the  train.  It  is  no 
exaggeration!  Certain  of  the  railroad  personnel  said 
to  a  representative  of  "Orebladet,"  "Never  before  have 
we  'shipped*  so  many  drunken  soldiers.  The  higher 
officers  as  well  as  sub-officers  had  literally  to  haul  and 
push  the  helpless  young  fellows  into  the  trains." 

Such  are  the  fruits  of.  the  Samlag*s  regulations  and 
restrictions.  A  system  which  in  Sweden  has  run  up 
arrests  for  drunkenness  400  per  cent  since  its  establish- 
ment (from  10,831  in  1865  to  42,500  in  1905) ^'^  and 
which  in  Norway  has  given  us  9,384^2^  arrests  in  one 
year  in  a  city  of  230,000  people  (Christiania)  has  nothing 
to  teach  Americans  who  are  reaching  out  for  better 
things  in  their  own  land.  The  most  inadequately  en- 
forced prohibition  law  is  more  satisfactory. 

Fifteen  years  ago  there  was  a  certain  Mr.  Gustav 
Thomann,  who  was  wont  to  emerge  at  state-house 
hearings  when  the  brewing  interests  were  in  any  way 
threatened  by  temperance  legislation.  At  one  of  the 
earlier  Anti-alcohol  Congresses,  the  one  held  in  Zurich 

(O  Petersson,  "Svenska  rusdryckslagstiftningen  och 
Goteborgs-systemet,"  p.  59.  Of  course  the  population  of 
Sweden  Has  not  increased  in  anything  like  this  proportion. 

(2)  The  report  of  the  Central  Statistical  Bureau,  "Braen- 
devinssamlagene  og  forbruket  av  braendevin,  vin  og  61,"  1907, 
p.  27)  gives  under  the  caption  of  "Straffaeldte  for  drukken- 
skap,  etc."  (i.  e.,  drunk  and  disorderly)  for  the  five  years 
1900-1904  inclusive,  an  average  of  18,042  arrests  each  year  in 
Christiania.  Eleven  hundred  and  twenty  of  these  yearly 
arrests  were  of  women. 


THE  GOTHENBURG  SYSTEM  17 

in  1887,  this  attorney  of  the  brewers  represented  the 
United  States !  The  best  thing  that  could  be  done  at 
the  banquet  which  closed  the  congress  was  to  arrange 
that  it  should  be  "half  alcohol-free,"  i.  e.,  that  those 
who  did  not  wish  to  drink  could  refrain  from  so  doing! 

Events  have  marched  rapidly  since  then.  Modern 
investigation  has  about  finished  its  great  work  on  the 
corpus  vile  of  alcohol.  As  a  consequence  "moderation" 
has  been  abandoned  for  abstinence.  To  abstinence  pro- 
hibition is  the  inevitable  correlary.  The  Eleventh  In- 
ternational Anti-alcohol  Congress  (1907),  convened  in 
the  high  places  of  the  Gothenburg  System,  contempt- 
uously repudiated  that  whole  arrangement.  The  Con- 
gress of  1909,  which  met  in  London,  saw  the  formation 
of  an  International  Prohibition  Federation. 

And  when  in  the  United  States  the  popular  moral 
conscience  already  accomplishing  so  much  shall  have 
the  reinforcement  which  modern  scientific  leaders 
stand  ready  to  give  it,  great  things  will  indeed  happen. 

For  at  last  the  time  of  compromises,  high-license, 
dispensaries,  Scandinavian  exotics, — is  over.  From 
now  on  it  is  to  be  a  straight  fight  for  the  destruction  of 
the  whole  traffic.  Sooner  or  later  all  must  line  up  for 
or  against. 

"Die  ihr  den  grossen  Kampf  der  Zeit 

Ausf echten  wollt,  herbei  ihr  Ritter ! 
Sprecht  welcher  sach'  ihr  euch  geweiht, 
Sprecht  frei  durch's  offne  Helmegitter ! 
Entweder,  oder!" 


CHAPTER  II. 

Ex-President  White  of  Cornell  on  the  Gothenburg 
System. 

In  his  entertaining  reminiscences  the  honored  ex- 
president  of  Cornell  University  devotes  some  pages 
to  a  discussion  of  the  drink  problem  on  which  as  he 
remarks,  he  "has  reflected  seriously."  Visiting  Swed- 
en some  years  ago  he  took  pains  to  obtain  information 
regarding  the  Gothenburg  System  and  "became  satis- 
fied that  it  was  the  best  solution  of  the  problem  ever 
obtained." 

Dr.  White's  observations  fall  into  two  classes, — 
those  of  a  general  nature  and  those  which  have  to  do 
particularly  with  the  success  of  the  Company  System  in 
Norway  and  Sweden.  He  opens  with  the  familiar 
statement  of  the  extremely  temperate  habits  of  the 
wine-drinking  Latin  peoples.  The  Italians,  whom  he 
cites  first  are  not,  however,  so  sparing  in  their  use  of 
alcohol  as  tourists  would  have  us  believe.  Their  con- 
sumption per  capita  is  more  than  twice  as  great  as 
that  of  the  American   people.  ^^^     As  to  the   French 

(O"  Vide  Sundbarg,  "Apergus  statistiques  internation- 
aux" — lie  annee.  The  order  is  France  18.9  liters  (absolute 
alcohol),  Belgium  13.2,  Italy  and  Switzerland  12  each  and 
the  United  States  5.5. 

Dr.  White  has  in  time  past  set  in  contrast  the  theologian 
and  science.     One  might  suggest  in  view  of  these  travelers* 


THE  GOTHENBURG  SYSTEM  19 

their  progress  along  "the  primrose  path"  has  been  all 
too  rapid  as  Dr.  White  himself  confesses.  France  is  in- 
deed the  largest  consumer  of  alcohol  in  the  world. 
Nor  can  this  be  due  to  any  rise  in  the  price  of  light 
wines  as  is  suggested  by  Dr.  White.  Actually  the 
prices  of  wines  have  fallen  so  low  as  to  lead  to  revo- 
lutionary movements  on  the  part  of  the  wine  growers 

accounts  of  European  sobriety  a  similar  opposition  of  the 
tourist  and  science.  Dr.  White  has  visited  Italy  twelve  times 
and  gives  it  a  clean  bill  of  health  as  far  as  drunkenness  is 
concerned.  An  objective  study  of  the  subject  issued  by  the 
"Federazione  Antialcoolista  Italiana"  ("L'Alcoolismo  e  un 
Pericolo  per  I'ltalia"  Milano,  1909)  tells  a  different  story. 
Dr.  Arcelli,  for  example,  reports  on  infantile  alcoholism.  An 
enquete  carried  on  in  the  schools  of  Milan  among  38,462 
children  (p.  21)  brings  to  light  the  fact  that  24.8  per  cent  of 
the  boys  and  11  per  cent  of  the  girls  confess  to  have  been 
intoxicated  at  various  times.  On  pp.  127-138  are  given  tables 
of  the  number  of  drink-selling  places  in  Italian  cities.  Milan 
had  in  1907,  5,225, — one  to  every  46  resident  males.  The  634 
streets  and  squares  of  the  city  average  8  drinking  places 
each.  Turin  has  2,482  saloons,  one  to  every  55  male  adults. 
For  every  bakery  in  Turin  there  are  six  places  where  drink 
is  sold.  The  growth  of  alcoholic  psychoses  is  exposed  in  a 
report  of  the  Florentine  alienist  Dr.  Amaldi,  (Rivista  speri- 
mentale  di  freniatria,  vol.  34,  1903.)  In  the  45  asylums  of 
the  kingdom,  of  38,764  patients  3,398  are  suffering  from  alco- 
holic insanities.  But  in  some  asylums  the  percentage  is  far 
higher.  That  of  Ancona  reaches  40  per  cent.  Wine 
alcoholism  is  responsible  for  an  important  proportion  of  these 
distressing  statistics.  Pp.  23-105  are  taken  up  with  an  ex- 
haustive enquiry  among  the  royal  procurators  of  every 
province  of  Italy  as  to  the  relation  of  alcohol  to  crime.    "The 


20  THE  GOTHENBURG  SYSTEM 

of  South  France,  movements  which  only  recently 
seemed  about  to  precipitate  a  political  overturn.  How 
little  wine  effects  as  a  prophylactic  against  the  use  of 
higher  saturations  of  alcohol  is  indicated  by  the 
following  confession  from  "L'Etoile  Bleue,"  (Dec, 
1909,)  the  organ  of  the  "Ligue  Nationale  contre 
L'Alcoolisme,"  an  organization  neutral  as  far  as  wine 

opinion  as  to  the  great  danger  in  which  Italy  stands  from 
alcoholism  is  practically  unanimous."  "In  this  circuit  alco- 
holism is  a  very  great  plague,"  writes  the  procurator  of 
Undine.  The  number  of  saloons  is  enormous.  Sixty-five  per 
cent  of  the  crimes  of  violence  are  due  to  drink."  The 
procurator  of  Treviso  attributes  more  than  half  of  the  local 
crime  including  crimes  of  carnal  violence,  to  drink.  In  Padua 
"the  number  of  drunkards  is  not  small.  Crime  and  frequent 
suicides  are  largely  to  be  set  down  to  drink."  From  Venice: 
"The  vice  of  drunkenness  is  widespread  and  deeply  rooted 
and  the  number  of  drink-shops  continually  increases." 
Brescia:  "Eighty  per  cent  of  the  crimes  of  violence  result 
from  the  use  of  alcohol."  The  Milan  prosecutor  says:  "It 
falls  to  my  lot  frequently  to  have  to  sum  up  the  causes  of  a 
tragedy  in  two  words — wine  and  knife.  Alcoholism  is  one 
of  the  great  evils  afflicting  North  Italy.  An  enormous  number 
of  poison-distributing  shops  infest  our  city."  Como:  "More 
than  half  of  our  crimes  against  persons  are  committed  in  a 
state  of  intoxication  and  three-fourths  of  the  thieving  is  the 
result  of  the  waste  of  wages  in  drink-shops."  Parma:  "The 
increase  in  wages  and  the  cheapness  of  wine  have  led  to  a 
growth  of  drunkenness."  Ancona:  "The  advance  of  alco- 
holism is  caused  by  the  vast  movement  to  and  from  America. 
(This  is  a  complaint  which  occurs  frequently  in  these  reports 
and  elsewhere).  There  are  9,579  drink-shops  in  this  circuit." 
In    Lucca    and    Florence   "the   very   greatest   proportion    of 


THE  GOTHENBURG  SYSTEM  21 

is  concerned  though  battling  vigorously  against  other 
forms  of  alcoholica.  "It  is  particularly  sad,"  so  it 
runs,  "to  have  to  affirm  that  the  departments  till  lately 
considered  least  in  danger  from  alcohol  because  of 
their  great  winecrops  —  Card,   Herault,    Bouches-du- 


quarrels  and  bloodlettings  result  from  drink."  From  Leg- 
horn come  reports  of  a  popular  drink,  "ponci,"  in  which 
sulphuric  ether  and  tannic  acid  are  important  elements.  "The 
stranger  who  visits  this  city  cannot  but  be  depressed,"  says 
this  procurator,  "at  the  sight  of  the  innumerable  bars 
thronged  continually  by  people  of  both  sexes  and  all  ages 
flagrantly  given  over  to  this  vice.  Drinking  and  quarreling 
have  become  the  inveterate  and  daily  habits  of  entire  classes 
in  our  society.  This  terrible  scourge  threatens  to  sterilize 
the  best  seed  of  our  race."  Iserina:  "Alcohol  has  become 
one  of  the  most  insidious  factors  of  social  pathology."  The 
procurator  of  S.  Angelo  dei  Lombardi  quotes  Dr.  Legrain's 
definition  of  a  saloon  as  "a  laboratory  of  moral  poison"  and 
remarks  that  in  many  cases  which  have  come  before  his 
court  the  criminal  confesses  to  have  deliberately  charged 
himself  with  wine  or  other  alcohol  solutions  as  a  preparation 
for  committing  crime. 

To  return  to  Sweden.  Dr.  Jacques  Bertillon  says 
("L'Alcoolisme  et  les  Moyens  de  le  combattre,"  p.  213):  "I 
ought  to  remark  that  I  have  hardly  seen  a  man  intoxicated  in 
the  two  visits  I  have  made  to  Gothenburg.  Messrs.  Rown- 
tree  and  Sherwell  met  but  one."  Then  this  naive  Sir  John 
Mandeville  proceeds  to  print  the  table  of  arrests  for  Gothen- 
burg from  1879,  when  39  drunkards  were  taken  up  to  the 
thousand  of  the  population,  to  1898,  when  the  number  had 
risen  to  57  to  the  thousand,  or  some  7,000  yearly!  And  thus 
he  gives  us  a  fairly  good  guage  of  the  value  of  these  passing 
tourist   observations. 


2.2,  THE  GOTHENBURG  SYSTEM 

Rhone,  Var,  Vaucluse,  Pyrenees — Orientales,  Saone 
et  Loire,  are  most  ravaged  with  absinthe." 

Dr.  White  declares  next  that  "the  European  if  he 
ever  takes  distilled  liquor  sips  a  very  small  glass  of  it 
after  dinner  to  aid  digestion."  To  any  inclined  to  ac- 
cept this  extremely  favorable  picture  of  European  cus- 
toms the  writer  would  recommend  a  day  or  two  spent 
among  the  miners  of  the  Borinage  (South  Hainault) 
or  in  the  similar  regions  of  Upper  Silesia.  Failing 
this  it  would  be  sufficient  to  read  such  frightful  stud- 
ies as  Dr.  Wlassak's  on  spirit  drinking  among  the 
work  people  of  Moravia  or  Massard's  "De  TAlcohol- 
isme  dans  le  Quartier  St.  Antoine."  The  last  writer, 
for  example,  says  that  from  the  Hopital  St.  Antoine 
to  the  Place  de  la  Bastille  there  are  87  drink-shops  to 
150  houses  and  that  their  average  output  is  fifteen 
absinthes  to  each  of  every  other  kind  of  drink  includ- 
ing wine.(^) 

Again,  Dr.  White  ventures  the  following:  "The 
best  temperance  workers  among  us  that  I  know  are 
the  men  who  brew  light,  pure  beer."  He  means,  we 
take  it,  such  representative  brewers  as  Pabst  and 
Schlitz  of  Milwaukee  and  Seipp  of  Chicago  who  either 
by  mortgage  or  by  ownership  are  said  to  control  75 
per  cent  of  the  saloons  of  Chicago  which  they  use  as 

(2)  As  a  matter  of  fact  the  per  capita  consumption  of 
SO  per  cent  spirits  is  given  by  the  statistician  Sundbarg  for 
1908, — for  the  United  States,  5.36  liters;  for  Europe  as  a 
whole,  6.94  liters. 


THE  GOTHENBURG  SYSTEM  23 

outlets  for  their  manufactured  product.  We  wonder 
if  there  is  another  person  within  the  bounds  of  the 
United  States  who  believes  these  men  and  their  subor- 
dinates to  be  effective  "temperance  workers."  We 
should  like  to  ask  further  if  Dr.  White  has  ever  looked 
into  a  certain  classic  on  the  beer  danger  by  Dr. 
Hoppe?(3)  Or  does  he  know  the  position  of  Professors 
Gruber,  Kraepelin,  and  Buchner  of  the  University  of 
the  beer  metropolis  of  Munich  on  this  subect?^^)  We 
can  assure  him  that  he  stands  in  his  opinion  at  the 
very  antipodes  from  them. 

Fourthly,  he  remarks  that  beer  and  wine  used  to 
excess  aid  in  freeing  the  next  generation  from  men 
of  vicious  propensities  and  weak  will.  Modern  science 
however  proves  precisely  the  reverse. ^s)  Indeed  it  has 
put  into  the  hands  of  the  prohibitionist  no  stronger 
weapon  than  the  investigations  which  show  the  blasto- 
phthoric  workings  of  alcohol.     Two  illustrations  will 

(3)  "Die  Biergefahr"  (20th  thousand).  See  also  his 
"Das  Bier  als  Volksgetrank." 

(4)  Prof.  Kraepelin  is  authority  for  the  statement  that 
in  1905  of  all  the  insane  in  the  Munich  psychiatrical  clinic, 
one-third  were  beer  alcoholists. 

(5)  Dr.  Fock  remarks  that  from  the  point  of  view  of 
race  hygiene  it  is  not  the  completely  degenerate  progeny  of 
drinkers  who  are  the  worst  for  society,  since  they  are  doomed 
to  extinction  but  those  on  the  middle  grades  not  wholly  de- 
generate but  of  less  value  who  lower  the  general  average. 

Th'e  number  of  degenerates  disappearing  is  small  in  view 
of  the  constantly  increasing  number  of  alcoholists. 

Publications  of  the  Alkohol-Gegner  Bund.  No.  39. 


24  THE  GOTHENBURG  SYSTEM 

suffice  to  indicate  that  far  from  cleansing  the  race 
from  weak  wills  and  intelligences  alcohol  increases 
their  number  in  succeeding  generations  enormously — 
that  it  is  in  fact  as  Prof.  Forel  says  the  chief  producer 
of  "Untermenschen." 

a.  Dr.  Bezzola  has  investigated  the  life  history 
of  over  9,000  idiots  in  Swiss  asylums.  One  of  the  strik- 
ing facts  brought  to  light  is  the  following.  Having 
secured  the  date  of  each  person's  birth,  he  reckoned 
back  nine  months  to  the  date  of  begetting  and  found 
that  in  the  majority  of  cases  this  fell  at  a  season  when 
much  alcohol  was  used,  as  carnival.  New  Year's,  or  vin- 
tage times. 

b.  Dr.  MacNichol  at  the  instance  of  the  New 
York  Academy  of  Medicine  examined  55,000  school 
children  with  special  reference  to  the  inherited  results 
of  alcoholism.  We  have  no  space  for  the  details  of  his 
weighty  studies  but  will  quote  merely  one  summarized 
table  of  statistics: 

1.  Of  those  free  from  hereditary  alcoholism 

96  per  cent  were  proficient. 
4  per  cent  were  dullards. 

2.  Of  those  suffering  from  hereditary  alcoholic  taint 

23  per  cent  were  proficient. 

'jy  per  cent  were  dullards. 
We  pass  now  to  Dr.  White's  observations  on  the 
Gothenburg  System.  He  says  first  that  it  has  greatly 
diminished  intemperance.  This  is  often  asserted  by 
observers  who  have  not  really  studied  the  subject.  But 
the  two  prohibitory  features  embedded  in  the  legisla- 


THE  GOTHENBURG  SYSTEM  25 

tion  of  1852  to  which  friends  of  the  system  almost 
never  call  attention  are  quite  sufficient  to  explain  any 
decrease  of  drinking  in  Sweden.  First  private  distill- 
ing was  prohibited.  This  broke  up  or  carried  off  the 
family  still  from  thousands  of  farms.  Again  there 
was  actual  prohibition  of  the  sale  of  spirits  in  nearly 
the  whole  of  rural  Sweden.  In  Norway  similar  legisla- 
tion effected  similar  results.  Thanks  to  the  law  of 
1845  consumption  of  spirits  sank  from  16  liter  per  cap. 
in  1833  to  4.4  liters  in  1865.  Not  till  1871  came  the^ 
Samlag.    Since  then  the  decrease  has  been  slight. 

Furthermore  the  magnificent  temperance  agita- 
tion which  has  among  other  things  made  every  ninth 
person  in  Norway  a  member  of  one  or  another  temper- 
ance society  has  certainly  contributed  largely  to  the 
result.  If  the  same  ratio  prevailed  in  the  United 
States  we  should  have  nine  millions  of  members  of 
temperance  organizations  instead  of  the  not  more  than 
two  million  at  present. 

Such  facts  as  these  are  not  cited  by  Dr.  White  in 
explanation  of  the  advance  along  the  road  to  absti- 
nence which  Scandinavia  has  undoubtedly  made.  Like 
so  many  others  he  lays  stress  on  features  of  the  Sys- 
tem which  to  the  writer  seem  comparatively  unimpor- 
tant. He  says  for  example,  that  "no  drink  is  sold  with- 
out something  to  eat  with  it."  This  is  not  true.  One 
may  buy  a  liter  of  spirits  from  a  Company  store  as 
freely  as  in  a  Bowery  dive.  Nominally  one  is  required 
when  buying  a  single  drink  to  purchase  eatables  with 
it.     Actually  as  the  writer  has  observed  a  dirty  half 


26  THE  GOTHENBURG  SYSTEM 

cracker  with  a  thin  bit  of  cheese  on  it  is  made  to  do 
service  a  dozen  times,  being  shoved  back  and  forth 
from  bar-maid  to  successive  drinkers  and  never  eaten 

Secondly,  he  characterises  the  drinking  places  as 
"clean,  tidy  and  decent."  We  have  seen  such  in  Norway. 
But  in  general  and  especially  in  the  poorer  quarters 
of  the  large  cities  they  are  greasy,  ill-smelling,  crowd- 
ed. One  in  particular  which  formerly  stood  at  the 
corner  of  Ostermalms  Torg  in  Stockholm  comes  to 
mind  as  a  disgraceful  example.  It  must  be  added  how- 
ever that  the  financial  prosperity  of  the  Company — 
which  with  the  Carnegie  Brewery  is  the  largest  tax- 
payer in  Gothenburg,  has  enabled  it  since  Dr.  White 
made  his  observations  to  put  up  far  more  sumptuous 
drinking  places.  But  the  alcoholists  one  sees  in  and 
about  these  premises  are  no  less  miserable  and  un- 
kempt than  formerly. 

Thirdly,  "only  pure  liquors  are  sold<^^^  instead  of 
those  that  are  absolutely  poisonous  and  maddening." 
But  alcohol  itself  is  absolutely  poisonous  and  madden- 
ing. Sir  Victor  Horsley  classifies  in  a  most  natural 
way  alcohol  with  diphtheria  as  a  heart  poison.  Prof. 
Sims  Woodhead,  the  eminent  Cambridge  University 
pathologist,  declares  it  to  be  the  most  dangerous  poi- 

(0  "The  Union  of  Importers  and  Exporters  in  Chris- 
tiania  has  called  to  the  attention  of  the  department  of  com- 
merce the  fact  that  a  number  of  Samlags  are  importing 
brandy  of  an  inferior  quality.  The  department  has  sum- 
moned the  Samlags  to  explain,"  Christiania  papers,  Jan., 
1908. 


THE  GOTHENBURG  SYSTEM  2.^ 

son  in  the  whole  pharmacopoeia.  The  matter  of  adul- 
teration therefore  is  of  minor  importance.  *Tt  is  a 
widespread  sophism,"  said  the  eminent  French  physi- 
cian and  anti-alcoholist,  Dr.  Jacquet,  speaking  before 
the  Societe  de  Medicine  Publique  (Feb.  27,  1907) 
"that  an  unadulterated  drink  is  a  wholesome  drink. 
The  purest  vitriol  remains  vitriol.  One  is  astonished, 
in  truth,  to  be  obliged  to  make  so  obvious  a  remark." 

Fourthly,  "it  forbids  under  penalties  selHng  to  men 
who  have  drunk  too  much."  This  statement  recalls 
the  remark  of  Faust,  "If  there  be  no  devil  whence 
so  many  devils?"  If  selling  to  those  nearly  drunk  is 
not  customary  where  do  all  the  staggerers  come  from 
and  why  are  the  statistics  of  arrest  so  high?  He  con- 
tinues :  "The  main  point  is  that  the  men  appointed  to  sell 
the  drink  have  no  motive  to  sell  more  liquor  than  is 
consistent  with  the  sobriety  of  their  customers."  To 
this  we  would  object  that  those  who  sell  the  drink  are 
not  men  at  all  but  women  which  is  no  unimportant 
feature.  Certainly  not  many  girls  would  care  to  refuse 
a  big  rawboned  navvy  or  sailor  in  an  advanced  stage  of 
intoxication  who  demanded  more  drink. 

But  neither  are  the  companies  themselves  as  scrup- 
ulous as  is  generally  alleged.  For  instance  some  years 
since  the  Bolag  people  in  Stockholm  determined  to 
open  a  new  drinking  shop  in  a  quarter  where  none  had 
existed.  The  section  is  one  of  wharves  where  much  of 
the  coal,  oil,  lumber,  etc.,  of  the  city  is  handled.  When 
the  longshoremen  heard  of  the  project  they  circulated 
a  petition  against  it  which  was  freely  signed  and  pre- 


28  THE  GOTHENBURG  SYSTEM 

sented  to  the  managers  of  our  benevolent  institution. 
The  petition  had  not  the  slightest  effect  and  only  pres- 
sure brought  on  the  city  authorities  prevented  the 
forcing  of  this  drink-shop  on  the  people.^*^ 

Another  instance  was  reported  recently  in  the 
Christiania  papers.  The  army  people  and  the  city 
government  asked  the  Company  directors  of  Freder- 
ickstad  to  close  a  certain  shop  near  the  army  barracks 
which  was  the  cause  of  much  disorder.  They  stead- 
fastly refused  to  withdraw.  I  may  add  that  this  and 
all  other  spirit-shops  in  the  city  have  since  been  closed 
by  the  disgusted  voters. 

Furthermore  Dr.  White  has  presumably  over- 
looked the  fact  that  the  rubric  to  which  he  refers  has 
to  do  only  with  the  sale  of  spirits.  The  companies  and 
their  agents  are  free  to  push  the  sale  of  beer  to  what- 
ever extent  they  please  and  their  profits  on  it  are  sub- 
ject to  no  restriction. 

Fifthly,  he  says  and  repeats  the  assertion :  "I  regret 
to  see  that  the  fanatics  have  recently  wrecked  the  Sys- 
tem." In  the  second  volume:  "Unfortunately  since 
that  time  fanatics  have  obtained  control  and  have  pass- 
ed an  entirely  prohibitory  law  with  the  result,  as  I 
understand,  that  the  community  is  now  discovering 

(O"  The  Hvita  Band  Forening,  branch  of  the  W.  C.  T. 
U.  in  Sweden,  has  at  a  cost  of  100,000  kroner  erected  an  al- 
cohol-free restaurant  and  recreation  place  in  this  quarter, 
Wartan.  The  longshoremen  have  not  and  will  not  petition 
against  its  opening.    Thiey  know  their  friends  as  well  as  their 


THE  GOTHENBURG  SYSTEM  29 

that  prohibition  does  not  prohibit  and  that  the  worst 
kinds  of  liquor  are  again  sold."  Here  Dr.  White  has 
passed  into  the  realm  of  the  imaginative.  No  such 
change  has  taken  place  in  Gothenburg  or  indeed  in 
Sweden.  Conditions  remain  unfortunately  the  same 
as  for  forty  years  past.  In  Norway  there  is  a  limited 
local  option  law  not  ''an  entirely  prohibitory  law." 
There  is  no  ground  however  for  applying  to  its  work- 
ings the  stereotyped  anti-prohibition  phrases. 

An  increasing  number  in  both  Sweden  and  Norway 
would  see  gladly  the  transition  to  a  prohibitory  re- 
gime. Let  us  recall  some  of  these  fanatics.  There  is 
Dr.  Wallis  of  the  Karolinska  Institut,  doyen  of  the 
medical  profession  in  Sweden,  and  his  colleague  Prof. 
Santesson,  and  the  well-known  Baron  Hermelin  and 
that  charming  gentleman,  Mr.  Ernst  Beckman,  radical 
leader  in  the  Swedish  Riksdag  and  the  Hon.  Sven 
Aarestad,  Minister  of  Agriculture  for  Norway,  who 
has  recently  delivered  a  remarkable  speech  in  favor 
of  national  prohibition.  Again  there  is  Dr.  Ragnar 
Vogt,  docent  in  psychiatry  in  the  University  of  Chris- 
tiania,  whose  university  record  was  almost  without  a 
parallel  and  the  Norwegian  alienist,  Dr.  Scharffenberg, 
and  Dr.  Helenius,  author  of  "Alkohol  Sporgsmalet" 
and  favorite  pupil  of  the  statistician,  Prof.  Westergaard 
also  a  radical  temperance  man  and  Professor  Laitinen 
of  Helsingfors  whose  investigations  in  the  Halle  Lab- 
oratorium  on  alcohol  and  infectious  diseases  are  epoch- 
making.  Then  there  is  the  political  economist  Prof. 
Gustav  Cassels  and  that  gallant  soldier,  General  Axel 


30  THE  GOTHENBURG  SYSTEM 

Rappe,  and  the  criminal-law  professor,  Dr.  Thyren  of 
the  University  of  Lund  whose  speech  for  national  pro- 
hibition in  the  last  Swedish  Riksdag  was  ordered 
posted  in  every  commune  from  Trelleborg  to  Hapa- 
randa,  and  the  psychiatrist  Prof.  Frey  Svensson  of 
Upsala  and  Prof.  Henschen  and  Prof.  Medin  and  many 
more.  The  Crown  Prince  of  Sweden  in  a  recent 
speech  has  practically  accepted  the  prohibitionist 
position. 

In  a  delightful  passage  Dr.  White  says  of  some  of 
the  occupants  of  the  Cornell  University  pulpit:  "Be- 
coming acquainted  with  them  I  have  learned  to  love 
many  men  whom  I  previously  distrusted  and  have 
come  to  see  more  and  more  the  force  of  the  saying, 
'The  man  I  don't  like  is  the  man  I  don't  know.' "  An- 
other experience  of  the  same  sort  awaits  him  when 
armed  with  ample  introductions  he  calls  on  the  pro- 
hibitionist leaders  of  Scandinavia. 

There  is  one  more  statement  to  which  we  must 
take  exception.  "Of  course,"  says  Dr.  White,  "I  shall 
have  the  honor  of  being  railed  at  by  every  fanatic  who 
reads  th*Nse  lines."  Have  these  anticipations  been  ful- 
filled? We  regret  to  notice  the  undignified  epithets 
"fanatics"  and  "temperance  screamers"  in  the  context. 
We  are  sure  that  no  prohibitionist  would  throw  simil- 
arly offensive  names  at  one  who  has  grown  gray  in  the 
nation's  service. 

The  present  writer  holds  extreme  views — views 
akin  to  those  of  the  great  investigator  MetchnikoflF, 
who  said  that  if  he  could  have  his  way  every  drop  of 


THE  GOTHENBURG  SYSTEM  31 

wine,  beer,  and  spirits  in  France  would  go  into  the 
sewer.  Towards  President  White,  however,  he  cher- 
ishes that  feeling  of  deep  gratitude  which  all  Amer- 
icans share  because  of  his  services  in  behalf  of  clean 
politics,  international  peace,  and  the  higher  education. 
Dr.  White  in  his  great  work  at  Cornell  has  been  a  lead- 
er in  many  directions.  One  more  piece  of  pioneering 
we  would  gladly  see  him  undertake :  viz.,  the  establish- 
ment of  a  lectureship  in  alcohology.  The  famous  sur- 
geon Konig  of  Berlin  in  his  "Lehrbuch  der  Allgemein- 
en  Chirurgie,"  speaks  of  alcoholism  as  the  most  widely 
spread  of  all  diseases.  Yet  extraordinary  as  it  may 
seem,  there  is  not  an  university  chair  in  the  world  de- 
voted to  its  study.  In  Europe  steps  are  being  taken  to 
remedy  this  lack.  Dr.  Robert  Koppe  of  Moscow  being 
especially  earnest  in  the  agitation.  In  the  last  eight 
years  a  profound  anti-alcohol  movement  has  taken 
place  in  European  scientific  circles.  Thanks  to  the 
fifteen  cent  magazine  which  is  doing  work  our  fifteen 
million  dollared  universities  ought  long  since  to  have 
done,  the  American  public  is  beginning  to  hear  some- 
thing of  it. 

At  this  juncture  there  is  a  clear  opportunity  for 
Cornell  to  redeem  the  reputation  of  American  schools 
and  to  make  history  for  itself.  Dr.  White  describes  the 
visiting  professors — Froude,  Freeman  and  others — 
whose  lectures  constituted  a  novel  feature  in  the  early 
life  of  his  university.  There  are  other  professors  quite  as 
prominent  who  m'ight  be  induced  to  give  the  American 
people  a  straight  lead  on  the  alcohol  question  from  a 


32  THE  GOTHENBURG  SYSTEM 

Cornell  class-room,  the  following-,  to  name  but  a  few: 

The  great  anatomist,  Prof.  Weichselbaum  of  Vi- 
enna, President  of  the  Austrian  Anti-Alcohol  Society. 

Prof.  Max  von  Gruber,  successor  to  the  renowned 
Prof.  Pettenkofer  in  the  chair  of  hygiene,  in  the  Uni- 
versity of  Munich. 

His  associate  in  the  same  university,  the  psychiat- 
rist, Prof.  Kraepelin. 

Prof.  Rubner,  who  holds  the  chair  of  hygiene  in 
the  University  of  Berlin. 

Prof.  Masaryk  of  the  University  of  Prague. 

M.  le  Dr.  Legrain,  editor  of  *'Les  Annales  Anti-al- 
cooliques." 

Prof.  Dr.  T.  Laitinen,  Helsingfors,  Finland. 

Prof.  Dr.  August  von  Froriep,  Director  of  the  An- 
atomical Institute  in  the  University  of  Tiibingen. 

The  physiological  chemist.  Prof.  Dr.  von  Bunge, 
of  Basel. 

The  statistician  Prof.  Westergaard  of  the  Univer- 
sity of  Copenhagen. 

Prof.  Sims  Woodhead  of  Cambridge  University. 

Prof.  Dr.  Forel,  late  of  the  University  of  Ziirich. 

Dr.  med.  Wlassak  of  Vienna  and  Rome. 

Prof.  Dr.  AschaflFenburg. 

Prof.  Kassowitz  of  the  University  of  Vienna. 

Dr.  Roubinovitch  of  the  Salpetriere. 

Prof.  Vandervelde  of  the  Belgian  Social  Democ- 
racy. 

Prof.  Hercod  of  the  International  Anti-alcohol 
Bureau,  Lausanne. 


CHAPTER  III. 
The  Gothenburg  System  Invades  a  Gothenburg  Park. 

"  'Tis  enough  to  make  half 
Yonder  zodiac  laugh 
When  rulers  begin  to  allude 
.    To  their  lack  of  ambition 
And  strong  opposition 
To   all   but   the   general    good." 

Thomas  Hardy,  "The  Dynasts." 

Three  thousand  people  in  the  big  circus  amphi- 
theatre of  Gothenburg!  Three  thousand  angry  citi- 
zens mostly  men  of  the  intelligent  middle  and  wage- 
working  classes  crowding  the  largest  hall  of  the  city 
and  hundreds  more  unable  to  get  admission !  What  is 
it  all  about? 

They  wanted  to  take  the  people's  park  from  them 
and  hand  it  over  to  the  Gothenburg  System.  The 
good  city  fathers  lamented  that  the  tender  feet  of 
little  children  should  be  cut  on  the  glass  bottle  bits 
which  "irresponsible  drinkers"  now  and  then  brought 
into  the  park  from  the  city  and  determined  to  arrange 
for  "orderly  drinking."  They  regretted  the  unhealthy 
conditions  which  prevailed  in  their  ill-ventilated  city 
drink-shops  and  sought  to  facilitate  drinking  in  God's 
own  out-of-doors.  They  declared  that  if  a  drink-shop 
were  not  attached  to  the  people's  pleasure  ground, 
tourists, — American,  English  and  above  all  German, 


34  THE  GOTHENBURG  SYSTEM 

would  pass  by  Gothenburg  on  their  northern  ex- 
cursions. Of  course  they  had  no  thought  of  the  money 
the  enterprise  would  produce.  They  never  have!  Their 
whole  interest  was  in  the  people's  welfare. 

But  the  people  were  thinking,  too.  A  week  before 
this  meeting  the  socialists  had  foregathered,  packing 
the  Winter  Pavilion.  Their  grievance  was  of  a  double 
nature.  They  were  there  to  protest  against  the 
action  of  their  owm  leaders  in  supporting  the  pro- 
posal of  the  city  government  and  so  betraying  the 
party  on  whose  programme  work  for  temperance  has 
a  distinct  place.  More  than  one  speaker  suggested 
suspension  as  a  just  penalty  for  this  unfaithfulness. 
From  five  o'clock  until  nine  the  discussion  lasted. 
Some  twenty  speakers  were  heard.  Again  and  again 
the  fact  was  emphasized  that  industrial  emancipation 
and  emancipation  from  drink  were  causes  indissolubly 
linked.  "It  is  pure  nonsense,"  said  Thorsson,  "to  work 
for  the  uplifting  of  the  common  people  if  at  the  same 
time  we  neglect  the  fight  against  alcohol."  And  the 
resolutions  adopted  asserted  that  any  favors  to  the 
alcohol  capital  would  drive  from  the  socialist-labor 
movement  great  masses  of  work-people  and  temper- 
ance folk  who  otherwise  would  stand  very  near  to  it. 

This  socialist  meeting,  however,  was  a  mere  pro- 
log to  the  great  citizens'  gathering  of  Sunday  evening. 
Enthusiasm  was  at  a  white  heat.  "Engelbrechts- 
Marsch,"  the  song  of  the  national  hero  who  whipped 
the  Danes  out  of  Sweden  in  the  old  days  was  sung  no 
less  defiantly  because  the  enemy  was  the  liquor  dealer 


THE  GOTHENBURG  SYSTEM  35 

and  not  the  foreigner.  The  address  of  the  chief 
speaker,  a  young  clergyman  of  the  state  church  and  one 
of  the  cleverest  of  the  newer  men  in  Sweden  was  a 
masterpiece  of  militant  attack  and  sarcastic  unveiling 
of  hypocrisy.  "They  are  anxious  about  the  children's 
feet,"  he  said.  "We  thank  them  for  that  but  we  could 
wish  that  their  thoughtfulness  went  further.  If  they 
had  considered  the  children's  physical  well-being  and 
moral  wants  they  would  never  have  proposed  a  gilded 
saloon  in  this  our  'thousand  childrens'  park.'  I  appeal 
especially  for  the  children  of  the  poor.  When  summer 
comes  the  well-to-do  take  their  children  into  the  coun- 
try. The  others  must  stay  at  home.  But  at  least 
they  have  the  Slottskogen  park.  The  mother  can 
send  the  little  ones  there  with  their  elder  sister  and 
a  lunch  basket.  Cannot  these  be  free  anywhere  from 
the  sight  of  the  drink-shop?  What  an  example  for 
their  plastic  little  minds.  Up  there  sit  the  fine  ladies 
and  gentlemen.  Hear  how  they  talk  and  see  how  they 
drink !  How  brilliant  they  are  with  their  fine  clothes 
and  with  the  automobiles  waiting  for  them  when  they 
are  ready  to  move  away!  Thus  it  appears  to  the 
childish  fancy.  'Wait  till  I  grow  up/  it  says.  *Then 
it  will  be  my  turn.' " 

So  the  protests  were  reiterated  amid  thunders  of 
applause.  The  meeting  would  have  been  a  surprise  to 
any  American  friend  of  the  Gothenburg  System.  The 
proposed  drinking  place  was  to  be  put  in  the  System's 
charge.  All  those  putative  safeguards  of  which  we 
hear  so  much   were  to  be   in   operation.     No   drink 


36  THE  GOTHENBURG  SYSTEM 

was  to  be  sold  without  food  and  none  was  to  be  sold  to 
intoxicated  persons.  There  was  to  be  no  pushing  of 
the  sale  or  among  the  buyers.  Everything  was  to  be 
orderly  and  decent.  But  the  good  folk  of  Gothenburg 
know  their  Pappenheimer.  They  have  grown  up  under 
the  System  and  have  not  made  their  observations  at  a 
distance  of  three  thousand  miles.  They  have  learned 
the  difference  between  phrase  and  actuality. 

The  traveling  gentlemen  who  stop  off  at  Gothen- 
burg on  their  way  between  the  Fjords  and  the  Russian 
capital  to  examine  "the  System"  get  their  information 
from  prejudiced  sources.  The  cultivated,  rich  Swedes 
to  whom  they  bear  letters  of  introduction  favor  it  with 
all  their  heart.  It  pays  their  taxes,  provides  charity 
money  for  the  institutions  they  direct  and  leaves  them 
their  wines  undisturbed.  Furthermore  it  gratifies  their 
national  feeling  to  have  a  national  institution  examined 
and  praised  by  tourists.  But  the  thousands  gathered 
in  the  Gothenburg  circus  were  middle  class  and  work- 
ing folk.  They  4cnow  the  disaster  these  regulated 
drink-shops  bring  to  their  own  strata  and  are  not  satis- 
fied that  poor  throats  should  pay  the  city  taxes  instead 
of  rich  pockets.^*^ 

(O  Dr.  Scharffenberg  calls  attention  to  the  altered  at- 
titude of  the  Norwegian  well-to-do  towards  spirit  drinking 
from  the  earlier  days  when  such  of  their  representatives  as 
Schweigaard,  Fr.  Stang,  and  Falsen  were  wont  to  speak  in 
flaming  words  against  the  habit.  "What  is  the  reason  for 
this  undoubted  change  of  front?  The  fanaticism  of  the  tem- 
perance party,  so  repellant  to  the  educated  is,  of  course,  the 


THE  GOTHENBURG  SYSTEM  .    37 

No,  the  Gothenburg  System  does  not  settle  the 
drink  probem.  Its  agents  violate  the  state's  laws  and 
they  violate  the  System's  regulations.  Men  get  drunk, 
families  are  neglected,  the  insane  asylums  recruit  their 
delirious  alcoholists,  the  temperance  party  must  or- 
ganize,its  committees  to  watch  for  breaches  of  law,  and 
when  the  System's  friends  get  especially  bold  and  try 
to  push  their  institution  into  the  parks  the  citizens 
have  to  rise  and  agitate  in  self-defense  just  as  they 
must  in  drink-cursed  St.  Louis. ^^^  Those  who  commend 
the  Gothenburg  System  usually  contend  that  parks, 
good  dwellings  and  the  like  will  settle  the  drink 
difficulty.  In  Gothenburg  they  have  both  model  drink- 
shops  and  parks — the  former  contaminating  the  latter 
— and  the  drink  nuisance  is  as  much  in  evidence  as  else- 
where. 

ready  reply.  But  this  is  only  a  mask.  In  my  judgment  the 
true  cause  of  the  change  is  to  be  found  in  the  indirect  pecun- 
iary interest  which  this  class  has  in  the  Samlag's  continued 
existence.  The  quota  the  Samlag  pays  of  communal  taxes 
and  of  public  charities  relieves  to  an  undoubted  extent  the 
purse  of  the  bourgeoisie.  This  it  is  which  makes  its  judg- 
ment of  drink  so  indulgent.  There  is  no  doubt  that  the  great- 
est part  of  the  Samlag's  income  is  from  the  under  classes." 

Dr.  J.  Scharffenberg,  "Afholds  Politiske  Sporgsmaal." 
Part  2,  p.  60. 

(2)  Where,  when  city  regulations  forbade  the  sale  of 
intoxicants  "within  500  feet  of  the  limits  of  Forest  Park"  the 
brewers'  puppets  in  the  city  council  decided  that  the  sale  of 
beer  was  not  forbidden  "in"  the  Park  by  the  ordinance  in 
question. 


38  THE  GOTHENBURG  SYSTEM 

But  will  the  authorities  heed  the  expressed  wishes 
of  the  people?  Perhaps,  and  perhaps  not.  If  not 
they  are  but  bringing  fuel  to  their  own  burning.  On 
Ascension  day  the  usual  temperance  demonstration 
took  the  shape  of  an  additional  protest  against-  the 
park  saloon.  It  was  interesting  to  see  six  thousand 
people  on  the  drill  grounds  with  their  banners,  their 
bands  and  their  choruses.  It  was  interesting  to  see 
students,  socialists,  White  Ribboners,  Good  Templars 
and  a  huge  interested  public  uniting  in  the  demonstra- 
tion. Most  interesting  of  all  was  it  to  hear  a  clean- 
cut  prohibition  address  in  the  very  home  of  the  Sys- 
tem. The  new  suffrage  law  will  sooner  or  later  change 
the  character  of  the  upper  house  of  the  Riksdag.  This 
dam  being  broken  the  waters  will  race  away  in  a  man- 
ner to  astonish  old  conservatives.  Sure  as  the 
coming  of  the  seasons  will  be  the  advance  of  the  tem- 
perance reform.  To  the  System's  winter  will  succeed 
the  spring  of  local  option  and  then  the  full-blown 
summer  of  national  prohibition. 


'      CHAPTER  IV. 
On  "Pushing  the  Sale." 

The  anti-alcohol  agitation  has  in  late  years 
brought  to  light  an  enormous  mass  of  cogent  fact 
thanks  to  the  brilliant  group  of  investigators  who  in  all 
lands  have  been  studying  the  subject.  From  the  other 
side  we  get  little  but  phrases — "the  poor  man's  club'* 
"the  food  value  of  alcohol/'  "the  sinlessness  per  se  of 
wine  drinking."  One  of  the  most  popular  of  these 
phrases  has  to  do  with  the  Gothenburg  System.  It 
expresses  approval  of  that  arrangement  on  the  ground 
that  the  limit  of  profit  being  fixed  at  five  per  cent,  the 
managers  are  not  tempted  "to  push  the  trade."  Many 
"class  conscious"  representatives  of  our  American  cul- 
ture treat  this  as  final.  We  question,  however,  the 
soundness  of  their  contention.  ^^^ 

To  whom  is  the  "pushing  of  the  trade"  with  us  in 
America  chiefly  due?  Who  cover  the  blanket  sheets 
of  the  daily  press  with  advertisements?  Who  blazon 
the  merits  of  particular  brands  of  beer  on  the  billboards 

(i)  One  keen  observer  alleges  that  the  communal  ava- 
rice to  which  the  Gothenburg  System  ministers  is  more  de- 
vastating morally  than  the  private  avarice  of  the  free  sale 
system. 

Ulrich-"Goteborgssystemet  och  dess  anvandning  i  Stock- 
holm och  Goteborg,"  p.  30. 


40  THE  GOTHENBURG  SYSTEM 

and  barn  doors  along  the  great  trunk  lines?  Who  send 
out  the  army  of  commercial  travelers  to  drum  up  trade 
in  every  corner  of  the  land?  Who  is  it  that  constantly 
watches  for  corner  locations  in  the  large  cities  on 
v^hich  to  place  his  agents?  Is  it  the  retailer  that  does 
these  things?  Not  at  all.  Most  of  this  "pushing"  is 
done  by  brewers,  distillers  and  their  immediate  repre- 
sentatives. 

The  retailer  himself — what  "pushing"  does  he  do? 
Does  he  stand  at  the  door  and  "push"  in  passers  by? 
No.  Does  he  urge  drinkers  at  his  bar  to  drink,  and 
drink,  and  drink  again?  Not  commonly.  Does  he 
have  agents  about  his  neighborhood  pressing  people 
to  purchase  his  wares?  No.  How  does  he  "push  the 
trade."  Chiefly,  if  at  all,  by  breaking  restrictions 
placed  on  his  business  as  to  Sunday-selling,  closing  at 
fixed  hours  and  selling  to  minors.  For  the  remedying 
of  this  evil  only  a  little  decent  energy  on  the  part  of  the 
police  and  of  the  executive  is  necessary. 

The  Gothenburg  System  concerns  itself  only  with 
the  sale  of  drink.  The  entire  manufacture  is  in  the 
hands  of  private  parties.  The  introduction  of  this 
system  into  the  United  States  would  not  therefore  af- 
fect the  great  alcohol  capital  in  Milwaukee,  Peoria  and 
St.  Louis  which  is  chiefly  responsible  for  the  rise  in  our 
statistics  of  alcohol  consumption. 

There  is,  however,  one  fact  to  which  the  friends 
of  the  system  point  with  apparently  justifiable  satis- 
faction. This  is  the  large  number  of  refusals  to  sell 
drink  to  persons  in  an  advanced  or  advancing  stage  of 


THE  GOTHENBURG  SYSTEM  41 

intoxication.  Yet  even  here  a  little  analysis  dissipates 
the  alleged  advantage. 

In  the  capital  city  of  Norw^ay  there  were  last  year 
19,646  such  refusals — certainly  an  imposing  figure.  A 
footnote  in  the  report,  hov^ever,  explains  that  12,931  of 
these  were  persons  already  intoxicated,  the  remaining 
6,627  being  repulsed  through  fear  of  intoxication.  In 
other  words  of  every  three  persons  asking  for  drink 
and  refused,  two  had  already  obtained  enough  to  be 
drunk.(^)  These,  therefore,  can  hardly  be  considered 
trophies  of  the  Samlag's  self-denying  ordinance. 
There  remain  6,627  refusals  or  twenty  each  day.  This 
divided  among  the  thirty  retail  drink-shops  of  the  city 
would  give  two-thirds  of  a  man  refused  drink  daily 
in  each.  The  money  value  of  the  drink  refused  to 
these  twenty  men  would  not  probably  bulk  altogether 
larger  than  $5  a  day,  only  one-half  of  which  would  be 
profit.  The  voluntary  loss  of  $2.50  a  day  by  thirty 
drinkshops  is  hardly  enough  to  prove  the  superior 
morality  of  this  particular  excise  system. 

But  there  are  other  considerations  which  further 
prove  the  futility  of  any  theory  based  on  these  statis- 
tics of  refusal  to  sell.  One  who  follows  present  day 
investigations  of  the  pathological  workings  of  alcohol 

(O  Someone  may  object  that  these  intoxicated  persons 
may  have  got  their  drink  at  one  of  the  twenty-nine  Christiania 
private  sellers  outside  of  the  Samlag.  This  may  be,  but  as 
the  Samlag  sells  in  bottle  quantities  sufficient  to  intoxicate 
completely,  it  is  equally  probable  that  their  intoxication 
was  due  to  the  Samlag  itself. 


42  THE  GOTHENBURG  SYSTEM 

soon  discovers  that  occasional  intoxication  in  its  ex- 
treme form  is  considered  by  physiologists  less  danger- 
ous than  the  cumulative  effect  of  constant  moderate 
drinking.  Drinkers  are  often  seriously  intoxicated  in 
the  original  sense  of  the  word  when  there  is  no  sug- 
gestion either  of  violence,  somnolence,  or  uneven  gait. 
These  continue  to  drink  at  the  Samlag's  bar.  One  has 
only  to  step  into  a  shop  of  an  evening  to  realize  the  ex- 
tent of  this  type  of  intoxication.  In  Morley's  "Life  of 
Gladstone"  is  a  passage  describing  a  visit  the  English 
statesman  made  to  the  great  church  historian  Doel- 
linger  in  Munich.  He  wrote  that  after  supper  beer 
was  freely  drunk  by  the  group  of  scholars  who  had 
been  invited  to  meet  him.  He  soon  noticed  that  all 
became  exceedingly  voluble  and  that  no  one  in  talking 
answered  the  others.  They  had  passed  into  a  pathologi- 
cal state.  Now  this  state  of  intoxication  is  normal  in 
Samlag  society.  The  writer  has  often  noticed  the 
clatter  and  babel  of  alcoholized  talk  and  has  compared 
it  to  the  noise  of  twenty  sewing  machines  in  a  Yiddish 
sweat-shop.  But  this  condition  and  really  serious  con- 
dition of  intoxication  does  not  at  all  disconcert  the  bar- 
maids in  a  Company  shop. 

In  the  judgment  of  the  writer  whatever  successes 
restrictive  legislation  in  Scandinavia  has  had  are  not 
due  to  any  monopolising  features  peculiar  to  that  legis- 
lation. Rather  are  they  due  to  the  limitation  of  drink- 
ing places.  When  our  American  cities  have  reduced 
the  number  of  their  drink-shops  to  the  average  pre- 
vailing in  Norway  we  shall  see  correspondingly  good 


THE  GOTHENBURG  SYSTEM  43 

results.  Whether  these  are  managed  by  "pushing" 
folk  from  Waterford  and  Tipperary  or  five  per  cent 
Back  Bay  philanthropists  will  be  a  matter  of  compara- 
tive indifference.  Prohibition  of  private  distilling, 
prohibition  in  rural  districts,  prohibition  by  local  op- 
tion in  one-half  the  cities  formerly  provided  with  Com- 
pany shops,  has  in  Norway  done  much.  National  pro- 
hibition of  the  manufacture  and  sale  will  complete  the 
upward  trend. 

One  other  fact  sheds  a  flood  of  light  on  the  inner 
workings  of  the  Gothenburg  System  and  the  intentions 
of  its  directors.  In  looking  over  the  table  of  sales 
given  in  the  last  report  of  the  Samlag  one  notices  that 
several  of  the  smaller  cities  of  Norway  sell  amounts  of 
spirits  greatly  in  excess  of  the  sales  in  Christiania. 
Thus: 

Christiania  (population  230,000)  379,799  liters. 
Trondhjem  (population  35,000)  503,931  liters.  Bergen 
(population  60,000)  511,185  liters. 

Why  is  this?  Why  does  Trondhjem  with  hardly 
more  than  one-seventh  of  Christiania's  population 
drink  one-half  again  as  much  alcohol? 

The  explanation  lies  here.  Bergen  and  Trondhjem 
are  on  thQ  west  coast  of  Norway  where  the  prohibition 
movement  has  been  much  more  widespread  than  in  the 
country  around  the  capital  city.  Throughout  the 
country  and  small  towns  all  drink  shops  have  been 
closed  and  the  benevolent  Samlag  makes  by  far  its 
major  profits  in  breaking  the  intention  if  not  the  lette; 
of  the  law  by  selling  in  prohibition  areas.    I  will  not 


44  THE  GOTHENBURG  SYSTEM 

say  that  they  "push  the  trade"  there  but  they  certainly 
make  no  effort  to  limit  it  and  exercise  absolutely  no 
control  over  it.  It  is  a  startling  fact  that  nine-tenths 
of  the  business  carried  on  in  the  Samlag  shop  at 
Egersund,  for  example,  is  that  of  flooding  by  rail  and 
steamship  districts  where  the  people  have  voted  out 
the  poison  seller.^^)  The  results  of  the  Trondhjem 
Samlag's  activities  are  pictured  in  the  following 
clipping  from  the  "Namsdal  Folkeblad :" 

"A  meeting  of  700  men  and  women  gathered  at 
Gjaelslingerne  passed  unanimously  a  resolution  that 
the  authorities  see  to  it  that  no  intoxicating  liquors  be 
sent  to  the  fishing  village  of  Gjaelslingerne  during  the 
fishing  season. 

"This  resolution  was  sent  in  accordance  with  the 
decision  of  the  meeting  to  the  Namsdalen  and  the 
Bergen  steamship  companies,  to  the  Trondhjem  Sam- 
lag  for  selling  spirits,  and  to  the  national  government." 

Pastor  Mollerup,  the  village  pastor,  in  comment- 
ing on  the  above,  remarks : 

"It  is  miserable  that  honest    people    can't    have 

(2)  Of  the  traffic  of  this  particular  Samlag  Dr.  Hansen 
writes  in  "Darlenes  Tidende,"  (17  Oct.  06.) 

"Drunkenness  and  riot  follow  the  Egersund  brandy  busi- 
ness. Infinite  misery  is  spread  by  it  over  the  country  dis- 
tricts. If  you  doubt  it  go  to  the  railway  station  and  see  the 
number  of  packages  sent  out  daily  from  this  Samlag.  And 
then  notice  the  constant  reports  of  fightings  and  disorders 
when  the  Egersund  brandy  reaches  the  distant  farmhouses. 
Two  dreadful  examples  have  just  come  to  us." 


THE  GOTHENBURG  SYSTEM  45 

peace,  but  that  drink  and  drunkenness  should  have  the 
privilege  of  forcing  themselves  in  everywhere. 

"Let  us  see  now  which  is  to  triumph  in  our  village, 
drink  or  decency! 

"There  are  many  who  stand  with  hands  in  pockets 
and  look  with  indifference  on  the  misery  in  and  around 
our  fisher  folks'  homes. 

"When  will  the  hands  come  out  of  the  breeches 
pockets  to  take  up  in  all  earnestness  the  fight  against 
drink?'* 

This  village  has  no  drink-shop,  not  even  of  the 
approved  Gothenburg  System  type.  But  this  fact  does 
not  save  its  people  from  being  drenched  with  spirits 
from  the  one  in  Trondhjem. 

This,  then,  is  the  conclusion  of  the  whole  matter. 
Scandinavian  monopolisation  touches  only  the  retail 
trade  while  in  America  it  is  the  great  manufacturing 
capital  which  does  practically  all  the  "pushing."  Such 
rigid  state  control  as  would  confine  the  action  of  this 
manufacturing  capital  to  areas  legally  its  own  would 
seem  to  offer  possible  advantages  pending  the  intro- 
duction of  a  general  prohibitory  regime.  But  such 
measures  would  tend  to  make  prohibition  by  assisting 
in  its  local  enforcement  too  brilliantly  successful  to 
please  the  American  advocates  of  the  Gothenburg 
System.  For  it  does  not  need  much  shrewd  guessing 
to  conclude  that  their  chief  interest  in  the  System  is 
to  thrust  it  as  a  stick  between  the  spokes  of  the  pro- 
hibition wheel.  It  is  rarely  brought  out  for  discus- 
sion except  during  the  height  of  some  prohibition  wave. 


46  THE  GOTHENBURG  SYSTEM 

The  Swedish  people  are  a  remarkable  people. 
By  nearly  all  the  tests  of  civilization  they  stand  at  the 
top.  Their  death-rate  is  at  the  lowest  figure;  their 
statistics  of  literacy  at  the  highest.  Anthropological 
measurements  indicate  that  racially  they  are  the 
standard  people.  They  have  the  culture  of  the  Ger- 
man, the  taste  of  the  French,  the  religious  and 
moral  interests  of  the  English.  In  all  directions  where 
intelligence  is  applied  to  handwork  they  stand  un- 
equalled. In  charm,  politeness,  hospitality  their  at- 
tractiveness is  all  their  own.  One  black  mark  alone 
runs  across  this  fair  surface,  the  smudge  of  Swedish 
alcoholism.  The  Gothenburg  System  has  not  availed 
to  remove  it.  For  this  they  need  a  more  mordant 
preparation — the  acid  of  national  prohibition. 


CHAPTER  V. 
Expert  Opinion  on  the  Gothenburg  S5^tem. 

"For  a  time  and  a  country  with  such  a  distinct  temper- 
ance tendency  as  Sweden's  the  Gothenburg  System  is  played 
out.  And  for  other  countries  to  attempt  to  erect  a  system 
of  a  like  pattern,  dropping '  its  money-making  features,  is 
likewise  impossible.  For  since  we  are  not  worse  than  other 
people  nor  more  addicted  to  mammon  worship,  the  same 
temptation  to  coin  money  would  soon  arise  elsewhere." — 
Oscar  Petersson,  "Sv.  Rusdryckslagstiftningen,"  p.  66. 

Dr.  H.  S.  Williams  has  given  us  in  two  numbers  of 
"McClure's"  a  good  birdseye  view  of  the  injury  which 
alcoholis  doing  in  the  human  body  and  in  human  society. 
In  his  third  paper  he  passes  to  the  remedy  and  reaches 
what  is  indeed  a  lame  and  impotent  conclusion.  Our 
old  friend  "the  System"  bobs  up  again.  It  is  in  his 
judgment  (his  judgment  leans  in  this  instance  on  the 
broken  reed  of  Harvard  professordom^^^)  the  "scien- 
tific" solution  of  the  difficulty. 

(1)  Dr.  Williams'  authority  is  the  Committee  of  Fifty, 
or    rather   three   professors   on   that   committee. 

In  1865  appeared  the  first  of  Lancereaux'  studies  on  alco- 
holism which  have  continued  down  to  1896.  Baer's  great 
work,  "Alkoholismus,"  appeared  in  1878;  Bunge's  "Die  Alko- 
holfrage"  in  1887;  Demme's  "Einfluss  des  Alkohols  auf  den 
kindlichen  Organismus,"  1895.  The  investigations  of  Schmie- 
deberg,  of  Frey,  of  Destree  were  published  in  1893-97.  In 
1895  came  A.  Smith's  studies  on  reaction  time,  "Ueber  die 
Beeinflussung    einfacher   psychischer     Vorgange     durch     chro- 


48  THE  GOTHENBURG  SYSTEM 

What  does  he  mean  by  "scientific?"  It  is  not  easy 
to  say.  The  "scientific"  method  of  treating  other 
poisons  is  surely  quite  different.  No  doctor  out  of 
Asia  would  recommend  fighting  the  use  of  opium  by 
opening  shops  for  its  free  sale,  ten  hours  in  the  day, 
six  days  in  the  week,  to  anyone  who  could  slap  an 
obolus  on  the  counter.     The   "scientific"   method   of 

nische  Alkoholvergiftung" ;  also  Legrain's  "L'Alcoolisme." 
The  last  half  of  the  nineties  was  made  noteworthy 
by  Kraepelin's  famous  studies,  "Neuere  Untersuchungen 
ueber  die  psychischen  Wirkungen  des  Alkohols"  and 
the  rest.  In  1897  Delearde  of  the  Pasteur  Institute 
published  his  ''Contribution  a  I'Etude  de  TAlcoolisme  Ex- 
perimental et  de  son  Influence  sur  I'lmmunite."  In  1898  ap- 
peared Grotjahn's  "Der  Alkoholismus,"  Aschaffenburg's 
*Traktische  Arbeit  unter  Alkoholwirkung"  and  Strumpell's 
"Ueber  die  Alkoholfrage  vom  arztlichen  Standonnkt  aus." 
Nicloux'  valuable  studies  were  published  in  1899-1900.  Lait- 
inen  in  1900  issued  the  first  of  his  epoch-making  works  "Ue- 
ber den  Einfluss  des  Alkohols  auf  die  Empfindlichkeit  des 
tierischen  Korpers  fiir  Infektioiisstoffe."  In  1901  came  the 
masterly  work  of  Rosenfeld,  "Der  Einfluss  des  Alkohols  auf 
den  Organismus."  The  net  impression  of  these  and  numer- 
ous other  investigations  is  summed  up  in  the  words  of  Pro- 
fessor Max  von  Gruber  of  the  University  of  Munich: — "One 
cannot  say  anything  too  bad  about  alcohol." 

In  1904  the  American  Committee  with  its  numerous  col- 
lege professors  and  presidents,  Drs.  Atwater,  Shedd, 
Hyde,  Low,  Peabody,  Bowditch,  Eliot,  Brooks,  Farnam, 
summarised  the  results  of  their  investigation.  They  had  tak- 
en every  precaution,  had  arranged  that  "men  of  all  religious 
faiths"  should  be  represented  on  their  body,  and  had  hired  a 
half  dozen  investigators  to  do  the  work  for  them.    The  pub- 


THE  GOTHENBURG  SYSTEM  49 

fighting  diphtheria  would  not  be  to  allow  its  manufac- 
ture in  all  the  horse-stables  of  the  city  and  its  sale  on 
every  tenth  street  corner.  The  "scientific"  method 
would  be  to  stamp  it  out,  put  on  it  every  prohibi- 
tion possible  without  regard  to  people's  inconvenience 
or  prejudices  or  traditions.  And  this  surely  ought  to 
be  the  "scientific"  method  of  handling  what  Dr.  Wil- 
liams calls  "the  most  virulent  of  poisons,"  alcohol,  the 

lishers'  announcement  on  the  cover  of  the  report  alleged  that 
"America's  ablest  thinkers"  were  here  represented. 

What  was  this  committee's  verdict  as  to  alcohol?  Well, 
they  concluded  that  alcohol  is  a  food,  but  that  sugar  (suffi- 
ciently concentrated)  is  a  poison.  "The  Liquor  Problem." 
Edited  by  Prof.  F.  G.  Peabody  (p.  32).  Nothing  more  start- 
ling in  the  world  of  knowledge  has  come  to  daylight  since 
the  French  physiologist,  Paul  Bert,  after  painful  researches 
affirmed  that  oxygen  is  a  poison  for  the  human  system.  One 
is  reminded  of  the  discovery  by  a  great  scientist  in  one  of 
Octave  Mirbeau's  novels  that  poverty  is  a  neurosis!  But  this 
is  not  all.  They  laid  before  the  American  public,  and  it  stilt 
circulates  (1910)  as  the  ripe  thought  of  our  American  uni- 
versities, a  sentence  which  is  certain  to  go  down  in  history. 
"The  term  poison  belongs  with  equal  propriety  to  coffee, 
pepper,  ginger  and  common  salt"  (as  to  alcohol).  "The 
Liquor  Problem,"  p.  2$. 

This  was  the  sum  of  their  wisdom  on  the  physiological 
action  of  alcohol.  The  results  of  European  research  gave 
them  no  concern. 

It  was  to  be  expected  that  these  professors  should  approve 
of  the  Gothenburg  System.  But  why  should  Dr.  Williams  quote 
as  authoritative,  persons  who  are,  to  use  Disraeli's  phrase, 
"in  such  a  pitiable  arrears  of  intelligence"  on  the  alcohol 
question? 


50  THE  GOTHENBURG  SYSTEM 

excrement  of  the  yeast  plant.  Pro-alcohol  opinion 
even  of  German  immigrants  in  Cincinnati  and  St. 
Louis  should  be  considered  just  as  little  as  the  feel- 
ings of  Bombay  Hindus  who  riot  because  of  hygienic 
measures  against  the  bubonic  plague.  For  it  is  just 
as  superstitious  and  even  more  dangerous  to  society. 

But  perhaps  he  means  "scientific"  in  the  sense  of 
approved  by  those  who  have  especially  studied  alco- 
holism. This  it  is  not.  The  best  general  expression 
of  scientific  opinion  on  all  phases  of  the  alcohol  prob- 
lem is  probably  to  be  found  in  the  reports  and  papers 
of  the  various  International  Anti-Alcohol  Congresses. 

The  eleventh  of  these  Congresses  met  in  Stock- 
holm in  order  that  its  members  might  have  a  chance 
of  judging  at  first  hand  the  value  of  this  widely  adver- 
tised and  highly  praised  method  of  retailing  alcoholic 
poisons.  Every  opportunity  was  given  for  inspection, 
both  advocates  and  enemies  being  allowed  a  hearing. 
The  result  is  summed  up  in  the  Report  of  the  Con- 
gress which  has  just  appeared  from  the  press. 

Of  the  speakers  Messrs.  Ljungren,  Hercod,  Berg- 
mann,  Forel,  Haehnel,  Ulrich,  Helenius,  von  Koch, 
Malins,  and  Froken  Dickson  spoke  in  strong  con- 
demnation, and  Scharffenberg,  Wallis,  and  Petersson 
were  scarcely  less  severe.  Of  those  favoring  it  Ruben- 
son  is  a  director  of  the  Stockholm  Bolag  and  Milliet  is 
connected  with  the  Swiss  spirits  monopoly.  Dr. 
Eggers,  editor  of  "Gasthaus-Reform"  the  German 
Rowntree,  advocated  it  only  in  its  unrealized  improved 


THE  GOTHENBURG  SYSTEM  51 

form.  As  it  now  is  in  Sweden  he  subjected  it  to  severe 
criticism. 

August  Ljungren  said:  "The  modern  alcohol 
investigation  recognizes  no  so-called  'moderate'  use  of 
narcotic  poisons  as  harmless  either  for  the  individual 
or  for  the  race.  Every  system  that  overlooks  this  fact 
is  doomed  to  failure." 

G.  Von  Koch,  the  Swedish  sociologist:  "I  held 
for  many  years  that  the  Gothenburg  System  was  based 
on  a  sound  principle  but  the  more  I  have  studied  the 
question  the  more  decidedly  have  I  come  to  the  con- 
clusion that  in  practise  it  works  out  altogether  badly.'* 

Dr.  Bergmann:  "In  my  judgment  the  whole 
system  is  obsolete  and  must  give  way  to  a  purely  pro- 
hibitive system.  The  only  possibility  of  its  further 
usefulness  would  lie  in  some  amendment  which  would 
provide  that  all  income  go  to  purely  anti-alcohol  work. 
e.  g.  temperance-education,  cure  of  the  alcohol-sick, 
etc." 

Dr.  Helenius  of  Finland:  "Times  are  wholly 
changed  since  the  System  came  into  operation  forty 
years  ago.  Almost  every  school  child  here  in  the  North 
now  knows  that  alcohol  is  a  poison.  Professor  Lai- 
tinen  has  proved  to  us  in  the  present  congress  that 
even  minute  doses  of  alcohol  corresponding  to  a  glass 
of  beer  a  day  poison  the  organism.  But  the  Gothen- 
burg System  sells  ordinarily  and  to  individuals 
amounts  that  exceed  even  the  so-called  maximal 
amount  of  drink  which  the  German  advocates  of 
moderation  place  as  an  hygienic  limit.  So  if  we  look  at 


52  THE  GOTHENBURG  SYSTEM 

the  thing  wholly  without  prejudice  we  must  conclude 
that  the  Gothenburg  System,  as  every  other  system 
of  license,  is  an  organized  arrangement  not  only  for 
forwarding  vice  but  of  actually  murdering  men. 

"Where  is  the  "keen  vision"  in  those  who  cannot 
see  this  or  the  "warm  heart"  in  those  who  defend  a 
system  whose  managers  advocate  restoring  the  sale  of 
drink  in  certain  localities  because  the  mere  supplying 
of  meals  does  not  pay?  This  international  congress 
should  waste  no  more  time  in  thrashing  out  this  old 
straw.  We  can  and  should  use  our  sessions  for  some- 
thing more  profitable. 

"The  talk  is  constantly  of  supplanting  private 
profit  by  disinterested  capital.  The  advocates  of  this 
idea  forget  that  the  retailer  is  a  small  person  alongside 
of  the  great  manufacturer.  The  great  weight  of  the 
alcohol  capital  lies  in  the  brewery  and  distillery.  And 
the  brewer  and  distiller  will  rest  content  as  long  as 
they  have  an  outlet  for  the  sale  of  their  products  in 
the  Gothenburg  System. 

"The  Stockholm  Anti-Alcohol  Congress  has  ac- 
complished much.  It  could  have  no  more  satisfactory 
ending  than  to  guillotine  the  Gothenburg  System  in 
so  far  as  the  System  is  proposed  as  a  substitute  for 
prohibition." 

Prof.  Dr.  Forel :  "Our  hearty  thanks  to  our 
Swedish  friends  for  their  candor.  That  the  Gothen- 
burg System  in  Sweden  is  bad  we  have  all  seen  and 
it  is  confessed  on  all  sides.    How  can  alcohol  be  fought 


THE  GOTHENBURG  SYSTEM  53 

as  long  as  the  community  or  stock  companies  are  in- 
terested in  its  sale? 

"The  question  is  can  there  be  a  good  Gothenburg 
System,  one  in  which  no  one  has  money  interest, 
which  will  pave  the  way  for  prohibition? 

"Dr.  Eggers  thinks  so.  He  believes  that  we  can 
fight  the  alcohol  interest  with  such  an  one.  He  con- 
fesses that  as  it  exists  in  Sweden  it  is  bad.  Now  the 
responsibility  is  on  him  to  propose  a  practical  system 
which  will  not  do  harm  and  which  will  lead  to  pro- 
hibition. 

"As  it  is  we  see  that  in  Sweden  interested  parties 
reduce  all  rules  to  a  dead  letter  and  compromise  the 
System  all  around.  Personally  I  believe  that  the  plan 
of  Cauderlier  (Brussels)  of  a  progressive  restrictive 
monopoly  is  preferable  to  the  Gothenburg  System. 
And  yet  after  all  I  must  say  that  the  abstinence  move- 
ment can  only  reach  its  goal  by  the  use  of  the  local 
veto." 

F.  Haehnel  of  Bremen :  "The  introduction  of  this 
system  into  other  lands  would  constitute  a  great  bar- 
rier to  the  healthy  and  speedy  development  of  our 
cause.  We  have  investigated  it  thoroughly.  Our 
Swedish  friends  of  opposing  opinions  have  presented 
the  pro  and  contra  at  length.  We  have  had  oppor- 
tunity to  see  the  System  at  work  and  we  have  con- 
cluded that  any  hopes  based  on  its  introduction  into 
Germany  are  gone  forever.  The  next  questions  are 
whether  its  introduction  with  improvements  would 
contribute  to  the  fight  against  alcoholism  and  secondly 


54  THE  GOTHENBURG  SYSTEM 

whetner  our  agitation  ought  to  expend  the  effort  and 
money  for  its  introduction  which  might  be  used  to 
better  advantage.    To  both  queries  we  answer,  *No.' 

"If  Dr.  Eggers  and  his  associates  of  the  'Gasthaus- 
Reform'  had  used  in  the  enlightenment  of  our  people 
the  time,  effort,  and  money  expended  on  their  Sisyphus 
work  of  improving  the  saloon,  our  organizations  would 
have  been  far  stronger  than  now  and  more  developed. 
With  every  thousand  new  abstainers  in  the  land,  far 
more  can  be  accomplished  against  drink  than  can  be 
brought  about  by  changing  one  hundred  saloons  into 
Gothenburg  improved  drink-shops.  To  introduce  the 
System  into  lands  which  are  now  without  it  even 
though  it  should  be  freed  from  its  glaring  weaknesses, 
would  be  to  act  unpractically,  to  give  brewery  and  dis- 
tillery ground  to  pasture  on.  No  opponent  of  alcohol 
to  whatsoever  party  he  belongs  can  take  on  himself 
the  moral  responsibility  of  tampering  with  this  plan. 

"If  our  deliberations  today  have  led  to  showing 
clearly  that  in  the  future  we  should  cease  from  experi- 
menting with  this  arrangement  concerning  which  we 
hear  at  home  such  diverse  opinions,  they  will  have  been 
profitable.  No  flirtation  with  the  System  will  avail. 
Only  the  enlightenment  of  the  people  will  count 
against  the  alcohol  capital.  I  beg  our  Germans 
especially  to  avoid  splitting  or  checking  our  movement 
by  seeking  to  introduce  the  Gothenburg  System." 

Thus  far  those  who  are  best  fitted  to  estimate  the 
worth  of  the  System.  A  few  words  more  about  Dr. 
Williams'  article. 


THE  GOTHENBURG  SYSTEM  55 

In  the  leading  paper  of  Sweden,  "Svenska  Dag- 
bladet"  (June  22-'og)  this  article  is  placed  with  others 
in  a  review  of  ill-informed  American  judgments  con- 
cerning Sweden  and  Swedish  culture.  Its  unreliability 
as  to  fact  is  measured  by  a  sample  statement.  "This 
enthusiast  for  the  Gothenburg  System  tells  us  that 
it  has  reduced  the  number  of  distilleries  from  23,000 
to  132  greatly  to  the  advantage  of  temperance.  He 
does  not  seem  to  know  first, — that  the  System  has 
nothing  whatever  to  do  with  the  manufacturing  regu- 
lations, — secondly,  that  this  reduction  is  due  wholly 
to  the  drastic  law  of  1852, — thirdly,  that  the  132  dis- 
tilleries produce  more  brandy  than  the  entire  23,000 
home  distilleries  ever  did." 

The  decrease  in  the  number  of  drink-shops  is 
susceptible  to  a  similar  analysis  according  to  Mr. 
Petersson,  one  of  the  speakers  at  this  Congress.  The 
decrease  from  1865  when  the  Swedish  Bolags  were 
introduced  to  1895  was  1,052,  a  little  more  than  one- 
half.  But  724  of  these  were  life  licenses  which  fell  in 
at  the  death  of  their  owners.  Only  328  closed  saloons 
in  thirty  years  can  be  credited  to  the  Gothenburg 
System.  Of  the  sixty-five  saloons  closed  in  the  next 
ten  years  only  thirty-six  have  been  closed  by  the  Sys- 
tem. They  have  beaten  this  record  in  Indiana  in 
three  months ! 

Further  it  must  be  remembered  that  many  holders 
of  licenses  presumably  with  the  Bolag's  permission 
split  their  license  and  run  really  two  drink-shops,  first 
and  second  class,  on  the  one  permit.     Mr.  Petersson 


56  THE  GOTHENBURG  SYSTEM 

thinks  it  more  than  probable  that  the  official  diminu- 
tion of  drinking  places  has  been  outbalanced  by  an  in- 
crease through  such  devices. 

As  to  consumption.  In  i860  the  curve  of  Swedish 
brannvin  consumption  went  down  to  four  liter  per  capita, 
a  point  to  which  it  has  never  descended  since.  (')  This  was 
five  years  before  the  Gothenburg  System  was  introduced 
into  Sweden.  Whatever  variation  there  may  have  been 
from  year  to  year  in  consumption  of  alcohol  is  probably 
due  in  both  Sweden  and  Norway  to  the  alternation  of 
good  and  bad  times.  This  is  indicated  by  the  curious 
fact  that  Denmark's  curve,  and  here  there  is  no  Samlag, 
varies  almost  precisely  as  the  curves  of  the  lands  with 
Samlags,  though  on  an  average  higher  rate  of  con- 
sumption. Mr.  Petersson  believes  that  it  is  very 
doubtful  if  any  credit  at  all  can  be  given  to  the  Sys- 
tem and  bases  this  opinion  on  four  factors,  two  posi- 
tive and  two  negative : — 

1.  The  undoubted  effect  which  the  tremendous 
temperance  movement  in  Sweden  since  1870  must 
have  worked. 

2.  The  similar  results  of  the  labor  movement 
which  has  transformed  in  a  large  degree  the  wage- 
working  class. 

(O  O.  Petersson,  "Svenska  rusdryckslagstiftningen  och 
Goteborgs-systemet,"  p.  52.  This  fact  is  conveniently  dis- 
guised, for  example,  in  Bertillon's  "L'Alcoolisme  et  les 
moyens  de  le  combattre,"  where  the  statistic  is  given  for 
1856-60  as  107  liters  of  50  per  cent  spirits,  which  contrasts 
pleasantly  with  the  lower  consumption  of  y.2,  for  1902! 


THE  GOTHENBURG  SYSTEM  57 

3.  The  persistent  refusal  of  the  System  to  re- 
spond to  petitions  for  restrictions  which  labor-unions, 
temperance  societies  and  communal  authorities  have 
sent  in  to  them. 

4.  The  development  in  the  System  of  subletting 
of  sale,  with  its  consequent  abuses. 

In  comparing  the  alcohol  consumption  of  the 
three  Scandinavian  lands  we  find  that  since  1870  it 
has  dropped  in  Denmark  where  sale  is  free:  .8  liter 
per  head  for  all  forms  of  alcohol  and  1.9  liters  for 
brandy  alone. 

In  Sweden  the  fall  has  been  .15  and  1.3  liters  re- 
spectively. 

In  Norway  it  has  been  .85  and  i  liter  per  head. 

It  is  hard  to  see  that  this  proves  any  particular  ad- 
vantage in  the  legislation  of  any  of  the  three  lands. 
Certainly  it  does  not  prove  the  superiority  of  the 
Gothenburg  System,  for  Sweden  which  has  this  system 
alone,  shows  up  not  only  worse  than  Norway  with  the 
System  plus  a  defective  prohibitory  arrangement,  but 
worse  than  Denmark  with  free  sale,  i.  e.  of  course  as 
far  as  decline  in  consumption  in  thirty-nine  years  is 
used  as  a  test. 

Dr.  Williams  prefers  the  System  to  prohibition, 
first,  because  prohibition  would  destroy  an  immense 
economic  interest;  secondly,  because  masses  of  people 
are  so  accustomed  to  alcohol  that  it  could  not  be  taken 
from  them. 

But  how  futile  such  reasonings.  The  alcohol  in- 
dustry  is   wealth-destroying,     not    wealth-producing. 


58  THE  GOTHENBURG  SYSTEM 

To  annihilate  it  would  be  but  to  put  out  a  great  con- 
flagration. When  the  Reformation  closed  the  English 
monasteries  it  took  some  of  them,  notably  the  great 
monastic  complex  at  Reading,  and  worked  them  into 
road  metal.  If  the  same  were  done  with  the  breweries 
of  Milwaukee  and  St.  Louis  wealth  would  be  con- 
served rather  than  destroyed.  One  might  quote 
Herault  de  Sechelles'  "Ruinous  nous;  nous  soyons 
libres,"  if  the  facts  would  not  turn  the  quota- 
tion into  a  jest.  The  "ruin"  which  would  send 
two  billions  yearly  now  spent  for  poison  into  legiti- 
mate channels  of  trade  would  be  a  ruin  beneficent  be- 
yond the  best  dreams  of  prosperity. 

As  to  the  second  contention  we  can  only  say  that 
measures  must  first  be  taken  to  protect  the  well  from 
alcohol  sickness.  Of  the  already  infected  Prof,  von 
Bunge  says :  "Numbers  of  men  drink  only  a  moderate 
glass  but  hang  to  that  glass  as  desperately  as  the 
morphinist  to  his  syringe."  Such  must  be  cured  of 
their  cravings  as  the  morphinist  of  his  peculiar  sick- 
ness by  removing  the  narcotic  drug  from  their  reach. 
"Old  prisoners  leave  their  cells  unwillingly."  Never- 
theless the  beer  Bastille  must  down !  Sooner  or  later 
the  alcoholist  Latudes  will  become  accustomed  to  their 
new  freedom. 

But  while  the  finical  are  questioning  the  feasi- 
bility of  prohibition  the  broad  masses  of  the  people 
whose  instincts  are  so  often  right  are  acting.  The 
success  of  the  radical  method  is  being  proved  in  an 
ever-widening  area  in  America. 


THE  GOTHENBURG  SYSTEM  59 

One  recalls  the  philosopher  in  Tristram  Shandy 
who  answered  a  sceptic's  disputings  as  to  the  reality 
of  motion  by  rising  on  his  legs  and  walking  across  the 
room. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

A  Bridge  of  Wood  Over  a  River  of  Fire. 

"If  we  liken  it  (drink)  to  a  terrible  monster,  the  Swedish 
system  may  be  said  to  be  the  chain  round  its  neck.  This 
chain  cannot  prevent  it  entirely  from  doing  damage  but  it 
can  hamper  its  progress  to  some  extent."  "Morality  rather 
than  profit  is  the  principle  of  the  Gothenburg  System." — 
Mr.   S.  Wieselgren,  the  System's  historian. 

Mere  statistical  and  financial  accounts  of  the 
Gothenburg  System  are  not  sufficient.  They  give  little 
idea  of  the  flood  of  misery  which  year  in  and  year  out 
flows  from  its  hundreds  of  drink-shops.  To  right; 
thinking  people  the  weightiest  of  all  questions  is  what 
effect  does  the  sale  of  drink  under  the  System  have  on 
the  distress  of  families,  on  the  struggles  of  mothers, 
on  the  miseries  of  the  alcohol-sick,  on  the  deprivation 
the  children  endure.  Is  the  Gothenburg  System  an 
alleviating  force  in  the  unending  tragedy  of  alcohol 
suffering? 

"Not  to  any  appreciable  degree," — is  the  only  hon- 
est answer  one  can  give  who  has  lived  in  sight  of  it 
any  length  of  time. 

Not  that  statistics,  either,  when  objectively  used 
g^ve  a  flattering  picture  of  the  System.  Take 
Stockholm  for  example.  The  System  has  been  in  op- 
eration there  for  many  years.  Do  we  see  constant  im- 
provement in  the  matter  of  drunkenness?    We  do  not. 


THE  GOTHENBURG  SYSTEM  6i 

The  police  report  for  1909  has  just  been  published. 
The  number  of  arrests  for  drunkenness  went  up  to  the 
huge  total  of  15,218.  The  increase  has  been  pretty  con- 
stant. Thus  in  1902,  11,586;  in  1903,  12,598;  in  1904, 
13,065;  in  1905,  13,942;  1906,  12,291 ;  1908,  15,147-  And 
the  police  in  Stockholm  are  not  at  all  severe  in  their 
administration.  This  represents  only  a  portion  of  the 
total  drunkenness  of  the  city.  One  sees  more  reelers 
in  Swedish  cities  generally  not  merely  than  in  Amer- 
ican prohibition  cities  but  in  drink  dominated  centers 
like  Boston  and  Chicago.  If  you  doubt  it  saunter  along 
Postgaten,  Gothenburg,  the  evening  before  the  Ameri- 
can sailings.  You  will  realize  then  what  the  peculiar 
Swedish  vice  is  and  how  little  the  patented  Gothen- 
burg arrangement  has  done  to  check  it. 

A  champion  of  the  System  and  general  director  in 
its  management,  Mr.  Wieselgren  says :  ''Experience 
shows  that  a  considerable  number  of  these  companies 
seem  to  be  without  any  conception  of  the  System's 
true  purpose  and  totally  without  shame  in  their  viola- 
tions of  its  spirit. "^^^  Nothing  shows  more  clearly  the 
justice  of  this  unsparing  judgment  than  the  records 
which  the  police  of  both  Stockholm  and  Gothenburg 
keep  of  the  number  of  times  individuals  are  arrested 
for  drunkenness  in  a  given  year.  If  any  practical  at- 
tempt had  been  made  to  prevent  drunkards  from  fall- 


en In  his  "Kunna  utskankningsbolagen  tjena  nykter- 
heten."  Quoted  in  Ulrich  "Goteborgs  systemet  och  dess  an- 
vandning  i  Stockholm  och  Goteborg,  p.  19. 


62  THE  GOTHENBURG  SYSTEM 

ing  again  and  again  such  a  statistic  as  the  following 
would  be  impossible. 

For  1905  in  Stockholm  there  were : 

1,207  arrested  2  times;  429  arrested  3  times;  203 
arrested  4  times;  119  arrested  5  times;  62  arrested 
6  times;  53  arrested  7  times;  32  arrested  8  times;  25 
arrested  9  times;  13  arrested  10  times;  11  arrested  11 
times;  9  arrested  12  times;  8  arrested  13  times;  and 
so  on  up  to  one  who  had  been  arrested  30  times  in  a 
year  for  drunkenness. 

In  Gothenburg  we  get  the  same  picture: 

799  arrested  2  times;  283  arrested  3  times;  124 
arrested  4  times;  78  arrested  5  times;  40  arrested  6 
times;  25  arrested  7  times;  22  arrested  8  times;  and 
48  from  10  to  25  times.  All  the  claimed  safeguards 
against  drunkenness  are  mere  waste  paper.  And  this 
is  not  the  worst  feature  of  the  police  report.  Of  the 
army  of  Stockholm  drunkards  in  1905,  1,065  were 
women.  To  insist  that  a  system  yielding  such  fruits 
is  better  than  the  Maine  law  is  to  make  oneself  a  super- 
lative illustration  of  **the  will  to  believe." 

There  is  on  the  Ponte  Sisto  in  Rome  a  mortuary 
chapel  on  the  walls  of  which  bones  are  arranged  in 
stars  and  crosses  and  arabesques.  There  are  decora- 
tions of  childrens  skulls,  ribs  in  circles,  finger  bones 
in  patterns — all  decently  ordered. 

But  can  such  order  change  the  face  of  death? 

Just  as  little  can  regulation  and  restraints  of  a 
greater  or  less  effectiveness  gloss  over  the  repulsive- 
ness  of  an '  institution  for  selling  intoxicants,  that  is 


THE  GOTHENBURG  SYSTEM  63 

toxic,  poisonous  drinks.  In  all  essential  respects  the 
drink-shop  of  Scandinavia  is  the  same  as  elsewhere.  It 
ruins  and  degrades  and  sickens  and  kills.  It  closes  at 
7  o'clock  Saturday  night  as  cemeteries  do  and  is 
supposed  at  least  like  them  to  be  quiet  and  well- 
ordered.     But  it  still  remains  a  charnel-house. 

Let  us  pas^  to  illustrations.  This  is  taken  from 
the  leading  paper  of  Gothenburg  the  "Handel  och 
Sjofarts  Tidning." 

"THE  UNEMPLOYED,  HUNGER,  AND  THE  SALE 
OF  DRINK. 

"Those  who  passed  this  morning  through  Forsta 
Langgaten  must  have  seen  a  painful  sight.  Just  out- 
side a  drinkshop  near  Masthugg  Torg  there  was 
gathered  a  group  of  ragged,  wretched  men.  They  were 
there  to  purchase  a  supply  of  brandy  with  which  to 
celebrate  properly  the  present  Easter  holidays.  It 
will  not  do  to  say  that  they  were  people  who  had  suf- 
ficient to  make  such  expenditures.  On  the  contrary 
they  bore  the  marks  of  extreme  poverty  and  misery. 
The  crowd  was  so  great  that  it  was  necessary  to  send 
for  the  police  to  keep  order  and  to  force  them  into  line. 

"At  a  time  when  the  press  generally  is  urging  all 
charitably  disposed  to  show  sympathy  with  those  out 
of  work  and  when  a  special  organization  is  being 
formed  to  deal  with  the  present  distress  it  seems 
highly  regrettable  that  men  should  use  for  drink  their 
hard  earnings  and  in  some  cases  what  they  have 
begged.  It  is  no  wonder  that  the  generous  public  gets 
hard-hearted  towards  poverty  when  they  see  a  long 


64  THE  GOTHENBURG  SYSTEM 

line  of  tattered  fellows  waiting  for  the  drink  shop  to 
open! 

"And  this  at  a  time  when  there  is  so  much  suffer- 
ing and  lack  of  employment ! 

"The  drinl^shops  should  be  closed ! 

"Signed,  A  Citizen.— April  8,  '08." 

The  writer  is  living  far  up  in  the  Gudbrandsdal. 
Complaints  are  there  being  made  of  the  great  activity 
the  Samlag  in  Lillehammer  has  displayed  in  the 
holidays  just  past  in  flooding  the  valley  with  drink. 
One  writes  from  Tretten  of  "the  pyramid  of  brandy 
bottles  which  this  particular  shop  has  sent  into  the 
villages  spreading  everywhere  trouble  and  sorrow  in 
the  homes  and  destroying  Christmas  joy."  He  sug- 
gests that  there  be  a  special  car  of  detention  on  the 
trains  to  handle  the  holiday  victims  of  this  Samlag. 
"It  is  highly  inhuman,"  he  adds,  "to  leave  these  in- 
toxicated men  by  themselves  in  the  railway  stations 
during  the  bitter  winter  nights." 

Does  that  not  read  differently  from  Rowntree  and 
Sherwell's  idyll? 

The  following  is  from  the  recently  published  re- 
mains of  the  well-known  Pastor  Mortensen  of  Christi- 
ania : 

"  'How  dreadful/  I  heard  some  one  at  my  side  call 
out  the  other  day  as  I  passed  through  one  of  Christi- 
ania's  main  streets.  The  remark  brought  me  suddenly 
to  myself  as  I  was  walking  rapidly,  immersed  in 
thought.  I  turned  about  to  see  what  the  occasion  of 
the  outcry  might  be. 


THE  GOTHENBURG  SYSTEM  65 

"The  sight  filled  me  with  horror  and  the  deepest 
compassion.  The  whole  street  was  filled  with  men. 
In  the  middle  of  a  dense  crowd  I  detected  two  police- 
men, who  were  dragging  to  the  station  an  intoxicated 
woman.  Drunken,  nay  she  was  mad  with  drink,  the 
froth  stood  on  her  mouth  while  she  shouted  and 
screamed  the  vilest  songs  and  the  wildest  oaths.  How 
did  she  look?  Her  whole  appearance  bore  the  stamp  of 
a  drunkard  at  the  end  of  her  course  although  she  was 
clearly  not  over  forty  years  of  age.  Her  face  was 
swollen  with  drink,  her  eyes  shot  with  blood,  her  hair 
dangling  loose  in  the  wind.  But  her  clothing!  It  was 
torn  and  hanging  in  shreds  and  every  struggle  with  the 
police  made  it  worse.  She  had  been  taken  out  of  one 
of  the  city's  drinkholes  and  now  was  being  dragged 
stationward  through  the  streets." 

Prof.  Forel  has  said  somewhere  that  future  genera- 
tions will  look  on  our  drink  customs  with  the  same 
horror  with  which  we  regard  the  Inquisition.  The  re- 
pulsive scenes  one  meets  with  under  the  regulated  drink 
regime  in  Scandinavia  will  constitute  no  exception. 

Here  is  how  the  System  set  the  joy-bells  in  the 
North  a  ringing  at  Easter-tide,  1909. 

"Verdandisten"  reports:  "In  many  places  the 
evening  before  Easter  long  rows  could  be  seen  waiting 
at  the  doors  of  the  brandy-shops  for  a  chance  to  pur- 
chase.   The  consequences  appeared  later. 

"Two  persons  at  the  railway  station  at  Lindome 
were  seriously  stabbed  by  a  drunken  man  Easter  Sun- 
day. 


66  THE  GOTHENBURG  SYSTEM 

"K.  E.  Anderson  was  killed  by  his  intoxicated 
brother  Easter  even  when  visiting  the  parental  home 
at  Lyckeby. 

"E.  J.  Karlsson  a  Hardemo  shoemaker  was  ar- 
rested for  having  stabbed  a  neighbor  Easter  evening. 

"J.  W.  Sunden  of  Boras  was  stabbed  by  a  neigh- 
bor.    Both  were  drunk. 

"A  laborer  from  Gothenburg  got  drunk  Easter 
Sunday  and  was  drowned  at  Surte. 

"A  seventeen  year  old  boy,  Gustaf  Lofvendal,  on 
Good  Friday  stabbed  a  drinking  companion  named  Bo- 
man." 

"An  iron  worker's  family  in  Avesta/*  remarks  the 
same  paper,  "has  been  in  a  dreadful  state.  The  mother 
spent  most  of  her  time  in  the  drink-shop  in  company 
with  a  farm-laborer  she  had  taken  up  with.  Five 
children  were  left  without  care  and  the  father  finding 
things  unendurable  disappeared. 

"Finally  the  people  of  the  town  could  stand  it  no 
longer  and  determined  upon  a  demonstration.  A 
great  company  of  citizens,  men  and  women,  old  and 
young,  collected  around  the  house  where  the  children 
had  been  left  with  a  drunken  butcher  while  the  mother 
was  in  the  drinkshop.  The  butcher  was  summoned 
out  but  thought  it  best  to  run,  and  run  he  did,  head  over 
heels,  pursued  by  the  crowd.  He  was  at  last  taken 
into  custody  by  the  police. 

"The  people  now  hurried  to  the  drink-shop,  pulled 
out  the  farm  laborer  and  gave  him  a  thorough  beating. 


THE  GOTHENBURG  SYSTEM  67, 

The  woman  was  treated  to  a  severe  lecture  and  sent 
home. 

"After  this  resolute  action  the  people  of  Avesta 
went  each  and  every  one  about  his  own  business  with 
a  light  heart." 

Query. — How  did  the  Gothenburg  System  "solve 
the  drink  problem"  in  this  case? 

In  many  places  one  sees  posters  pasted  opposite 
an  Utskankning  or  Company  saloon,  urging  men  to 
keep  away  from  the  place.  These  have  been  put  up  by 
friends  of  the  alcohol-sick  to  restrain  them  from  further 
infection.  But  how  futile!  It  is  like  appealing  to  the 
public  to  keep  away  from  a  villainous  drain  which 
year  in  and  year  out  spreads  typhoid.  Suppression  of 
the  nuisance  and  not  "suasion"  of  the  sick  is  the  thing 
required. 

Another  significant  indication  of  the  System^s 
failure  to  root  out  alcoholism  is  to  be  found  in  the  fol- 
lowing notice  which  one  reads  in  every  third  class 
railway  coupe  in  Norway: 

"Warning!  In  accordance  with  section  seven  of 
the  law  of  July  24,  1894,  drunkenness  on  the  train  is  a 
punishable  offense.  Travelers  are  urged  to  report 
any  occurences  of  this  sort  immediately  to  the  con- 
ductor." 

I  do  not  recall  whether  similar  signs  are  posted  in 
Swedish  railways.  They  are  not  needed  to  remind  one  of 
the  omnipresent  vice.  The  writer  has  made  the  long 
twenty  hours*  ride  from  Stockholm  to  Jamtland  many 
times.    One  of  the  invariable  incidents  of  the  trip  has 


68  THE  GOTHENBURG  SYSTEM 

been  the  drunken  rioting  at  the  end  of  the  train.  Young 
roughs  without  collars,  unshaven,  with  coat-collar 
turned  up,  nails  in  deep  mourning,  bearing  all  the 
stigmata  of  a  degraded  alcoholism  the  more  striking 
because  of  the  refinement  and  order  everywhere  notice- 
able among  this  the  most  highly  civilized  people  in 
the  world,  —  with  whisky  bottles  sticking  out  of 
pockets,  swearing,  pushing,  quarreling — what  a  frontis- 
piece would  they  not  make  for  some  eminently  proper 
professorial  essay  on  the  Gothenburg  System. 

Verner  von  Heidenstamm  is  one  of  the  most 
popular  novelists  of  present  day  Sweden.  He  is  by  no 
means  a  temperance  agitator.  Yet  it  is  clear  that  he 
is  not  satisfied  with  the  civilizing  tendencies  of  the 
System.  In  a  paper  before  me  I  notice  the  report  of 
an  address  he  delivered  Midsummer  Day  at  Wadstena 
to  a  large  gathering  of  Swedish  young  people  who 
were  working  for  tree  planting  and  other  public  in- 
terests. 

"Why  is  it,"  said  this  shrewd  and  accomplished 
man  of  the  world,  "that  it  is  difficult  to  plant  allees 
of  shade  trees?  It  is  because  drunken  youths  on  Sat- 
urday and  Sunday  nights  insist  as  they  go  homeward 
on  breaking  down  the  young  trees.  (The  howling, 
swearing  Saturday  night  drunkard  is  a  characteristic 
feature  of  Swedish  life  as  every  one  who  has  passed  a 
few  months  in  the  country  well  knows).  In  Switzer- 
land one  can  journey  for  miles  under  rows  of  fruit- 
trees  and  even  in  vast  swarming  Paris  flower  masses 
and  grass  mats  can  be  left  out  safely  without  fear  of 


THE  GOTHENBURG  SYSTEM  69 

ruffianism.  But  when  our  countryman  has  taken  his 
drink  the  barbarian  in  him  rises  to  the  surface  and  he 
immediately  feels  impelled  to  injure  or  destroy.  I 
know  nothing  under  the  sun  more  stupid  than  a 
drunken  Swede.  Drink  disorders  him  in  a  specially 
noxious  way.  Here  is  one  reason  more  why  we  should 
take  ofif  our  hats" — (to  the  Gothenburg  System  with  its 
restraining  and  moralizing  influence?  Not  a  bit  of  it!) 
"to  the  flags  of  the  temperance  organizations  on  which 
are  inscribed  in  letters  of  gold  the  future's  pro- 
gramme." 

One  could  wish  that  a  Gothenburg  cinemato- 
graph showing  the  System  in  action  could  be  sent 
about  New  York  drawing  rooms  and  the  lecture-rooms 
of  American  universities  where  it  is  believed  in  and 
praised.  It  would  be  a  vivid  panorama  of  fighting, 
reeling,  seedy,  depraved  victims  of  alcohol.  One  finds 
material  at  every  turn.  My  eye  lights  on  this  from 
"Svenska  Dagbladet"  (June  4,  '09)  : 

"A  tailor  from  Multro  named  Hilbom  visited  to- 
gether with  his  wife  Solleftea,  where  they  purchased 
brandy.  On  reaching  home  they  began  a  wild  carousal. 
Late  in  the  night  he  lay  down  on  the  floor  and  went  to 
sleep.  In  the  morning  he  was  found  dead.  The  home, 
remarked  the  local  paper,  exhibited  a  dreadful  sight. 
The  wife,  the  hired  man,  and  the  housekeeper  lay  in 
their  respective  beds  still  drunk  after  the  night's  orgies. 
In  the  open  air  just  outside  the  house  a  sister  of  Hil- 
bom lay  in  a  drunken  stupor  close  to  an  apprentice  also 


70  THE  GOTHENBURG  SYSTEM 

When  the  Hugenots  sent  the  Grand  Monarque  a 
pitiable  appeal  for  relief,  recounting  their  dreadful  dis- 
tresses, he  wrote  at  the  bottom  merely  "Neant."  ('Tt 
is  nothing.")  The  professors  and  theorists  will  perhaps 
say  the  same  here.  "Such  things  occur  everywhere," 
they  will  object,  shrugging  the  shoulder  just  per- 
ceptibly and  adjusting  their  glasses.  But  it  is  for  the 
future  to  see  to  it  that  they  do  not  occur  everywhere, 
that  alcoholism  become  as  rare  as  leprosy  is  or  as  small- 
pox bids  fair  to  be.  We  have  beaten  the  lepra  bacillus. 
We  shall  yet  down  the  yeast  plant.  But  we  can  only 
do  it  by  stopping  its  manufacture,  by  leveling  to  the 
ground  the  beer  brewery  "beside  which,"  as  Dr. 
Moebius  the  Leipzig  psychiatrist  solemnly  said  after  a 
profound  study  of  alcohol  and  its  workings,  "the  man 
who  has  murdered  a  multitude  is  an  innocent  orphan 
boy."(»> 

It  is  generally  known  that  the  Company  System  is 
more  stringent  in  its  regulations  and  in  its  workings  in 
Norway  than  in  Sweden.  If  it  had  produced  social  re- 
sults of  an  advanced  type  anywhere  we  should  expect 

(O  "Ein  Massenmorder  ist  ein  Waisenlcnabe  gegen  eine 
Bierbrauerei."  So  we  have  Ghingis-Khan,  Alva,  Tilly,  Ab- 
dul Hamid  and  Adolphus  Busch.  Thirty-five  thousand  pair  of 
eyes  were  handed  Agha  Mohammed  Khan  on  platters  after  the 
sack  of  Kerman,  The  fifty  thousand  dollar  bills  presented  to  the 
Germanic  Museum  by  Harvard's  beer  Maecenas  represented 
doubtless  as  many  diseased  livers.  Is  it  not  time  that  the 
Puritan  motto  "Christo  et  Ecclesiae"  give  place  to  the 
pagan  "Non  olet"  of  the  Emperor  Vesoasian? 


THE  GOTHENBURG  SYSTEM  ;i 

to  see  them  in  the  capital  city  of  Norway  where  Nor- 
wegian culture  and  Norwegian  intelligence  touch  their 
highest  point  But  what  is  the  case?  Christiania  is  a 
city  of  230,000  inhabitants.  In  the  Norwegian  review 
"Kringsjaa"  (July,  1908)  Dr.  Paul  Winge  discusses  its 
criminality.  He  says  that  on  a  low  estimate  4,000  men 
and  2,000  women  support  themselves  as  criminals.  In- 
cluding children  and  other  dependents  there  are  10,000 
persons  in  Christiania  belonging  to  the  criminal  strata 
of  society,  or  nearly  5  per  cent  of  the  whole  population. 
And  by  this  he  means  not  occasional  criminals  like  the 
intoxicated  but  predatory  criminals. 

There  is  of  course  no  prohibitory  community  with 
such  a  record,  not  even  Portland  or  Bangor,  which 
"New  England's  greatest  newspaper"  has  so  often 
adduced  as  examples  of  the  terrible  results  of  prohibi- 
tion. Alcohol  from  the  Company  store  works  in  pre- 
cisely the  same  way  as  alcohol  from  the  American 
corner  saloon.  It  produces  a  parasitical  criminal 
class.(^> 

But  what  are  its  effects  on  the  better  situated? 
Are  they  restraining  or  enlightening?  Just  take  a 
look  at  the  porcine  faces  of  the  punch  drinkers  gathered 
about   the   little   round,   marble-topped   tables   of   the 


(2)  A  Christiania  paper  describes  what  are  called  "nose- 
drinkers"  as  far  as  I  know  a  specialty  of  that  city.  These 
pour  out  their  brandy  into  the  hollow  of  the  hand  and  snuf? 
it  into  the  nose  in  quick  drafts.  Intoxication  in  this  way  is 
soon  attained. 


y2  THE  GOTHENBURG  SYSTEM 

Cafe  du  Nord,  in  Stockholm/3)  How  gross  the  typej 
Swedish  charm  has  at  last  evanesced!  The  evolution 
of  the  Swedish  student  youth — courteous  and  delight- 
ful as  ephebi  of  classic  Athens — into  such  monstrosi- 
ties, 

"Dewlapped  like  bulls 

Whose  throats  have  hanging  to  them 

Wallets  of  flesh" 

is  a  crime  against  culture  peculiar  to  Swedish  drink- 
selling.  •  No  drinkers  on  earth,  under  whatsoever  sys- 
tem degenerated,  are  more  repulsively  goitred.  One. 
recalls  the  Iceland  bird,  which  is  so  fat  that  with  a 
wick  in  its  throat  it  burns  as  a  candle  through  half  a 
winter's  night.  There  would  be  no  need  of  arc  lamps 
if  the  punch  drinkers  of  the  Cafe  du  Nord  were  lighted 
and  placed  about  Norrmalms  Torg ! 

"Norske  Intelligenser  Sedler"  gives  a  picture  of 
recent  Norwegian  student  excesses  which  indicates 
how  backward  public  opinion  is  in  certain  circles  of 
Christiania  as  well,  after  forty  years  of  the  System. 

"Drunken  students,"  it  remarks,  "began  the 
seventeenth  of  May  (Norway's  National  Independence 
Day,  the  anniversary  of  the  Eidsvold  Convention) 
with  howling  and  yelling  in  the  streets.     The  police 

(3)  To  such  cafes  the  system  delegates  the  right  of  re- 
tailing intoxicants  under  conditions  much  the  same  as  those 
prescribed  for  the  regular  drinking  places. 


THE  GOTHENBURG  SYSTEM  73 

were  obliged  to  confiscate  their  banners.  Some  joined 
themselves  to  the  brigade-band  and  marched  to  the 
palace,  rioting  all  the  way.  Numbers  were  pulled  into 
the  Pipervik  police  station  and  fined." 

Again  on  the  4th  of  June  the  same  paper  writes : 

"The  conduct  of  young  students  at  St.  Hans 
Haugen  yesterday  evening  was  so  rowdyish  and  low  as 
to  be  almost  incredible.  One  would  have  thought 
them  the  scum  of  society  rather  than  the  scions  of 
educated  families.  A  great  gang  of  these  drunken 
students  collected  on  the  hill,  where  they  yelled  and 
rioted  and  annoyed  the  restaurant  servants.  Finally 
they  were  ejected.  But  they  continued  outside,  hoot- 
ing and  howling,  annoying  the  animals  in  the  Zoo- 
logical collection,  throwing  beer  mugs  into  the  bear- 
pits,  etc.  The  attendants  secured  a  policeman  but  he 
was  immediately  surrounded  by  the  gang,  who  threw 
gravel  and  stones  at  him.  Thirteen  of  them  were 
finally  arrested.  Many  of  these  represented  the  best 
families  of  the  city.  The  police  declared  that  they 
conducted  themselves  as  hatefully  as  the  worst  hooli- 
gans they  had  ever  had  to  deal  with." 

"Student  excesses,"  one  will  say.  "Young  blood !" 
"Liable  to  happen  anywhere." 

Yes,  anywhere  where  alcohol  is  sold.  Against 
alcoholized  vulgarity  neither  the  Gothenburg  Sys- 
tem nor  academic  culture  is  a  safe  prophylactic. 
Rather  we  may  say  Samlag  drink  neutralises  all  the 
restraining  and  enlightening  values  of  academic  cul- 
ture.   The  present  case  ought  to  have  shown  the  Sys- 


74  THE  GOTHENBURG  SYSTEM 

tern  at  its  best.  Wines,  light-beer,  cognac,  student- 
punch,  sold  under  theoretically  satisfactory  conditions 
to  young  men  of  high  breeding  and  selected  blood, 
trained  in  all  the  culture  the  cultivated  Norwegian 
capital  could  give  them — and  the  result?  Negro  min- 
ers, Italian  sewer  diggers,  Kanuck  lumber  men, — the 
most  unprivileged  and  untrained  elements  in  our  he- 
terogeneous American  society  would  if  kept  from  al- 
cohol show  up  better.  But  ply  them  with  the  drink 
which  the  Norwegian  students  procured  from  Gothen- 
burg shops  or  their  affiliated  bars  and  they  would  soon 
sink  to  the  same  cultural  level. 

In  striking  contrast  are  the  manners  of  Nor- 
wegian students  who  have  been  brought  up  not  in  the 
densely  alcoholized  atmosphere  of  Christiania  but  in 
the  alcohol-free  surroundings  of  a  small  Minnesota 
town. 

In  1906  a  glee  club  of  Norwegian-American  col- 
lege boys,  the  St.  Olaf  Chorus,  toured  the  mother  coun- 
try. Prof.  Kildahl  in  recounting  their  triumphant  pro- 
gress said :  "It  awakened  general  surprise  when  it  was 
known  that  our  boys  drank  neither  wine,  beer,  nor 
brandy.  Other  guests  at  the  receptions  usually  drank 
strong  liquors.  If  I  had  taken  one-fourth  of  what  my 
neighbors  did  I  should  have  been  under  the  table.  It 
seems  to  be  an  understood  thing  in  Norway  that  at 
every  social  function  there  shall  be  a  great  quantity 
of  liquors  on  the  table  and  the  waiters  see  to  it  that 
the  glasses  are  kept  full." 


CHAPTER  VII. 

Where  the  Poor  Man's  Clubbed. 

"With  the  wife  out  washing,  her  rub,  rub,  rub, 
Beats  time  for  the  songs  of  the  poor  man's  club. 
If  you  don't  need  clothes  and  can  live  without  grub 
Why  just  go  and  join  the  poor  man's  club." 

— Song  of  the  Anti-Saloon  movement. 

Many  years  ago  the  Norwegian  poet,  Ibsen,  in  a 
speech  at  Trondhjem  declared  that  for  the  regenera- 
tion of  society  we  must  look  to  two  classes,  —  the 
women  and  the  wage-workers.  This  might  be  called 
as  far  as  the  movement  against  alcohol  is  concerned 
a  veritable  prophecy. 

It  was  the  joint  effort  of  women  and  working 
men  which  placed  on  the  Finnish  code  the  first  na- 
tional prohibition  law  in  existence.  In  Sweden  the 
working  men  have  shown  themselves  of  like  mind. 
The  National  Socialist  Congress  of  last  year  was  no- 
table from  the  fact  that  a  prohibition  declaration  was 
forced  through  by  the  rank  and  file  against  the  protest 
I  of  the  more  fearful  and  perhaps  less  conscientious 
leaders.  In  Norway  this  year  at  Hamar  only  the 
threat  of  resignation  which  Jeppesen  and  other 
leaders  made  prevented  the  convention  from  com- 
mitting the  party  to  the  same  policy.  The  writer 
was  interested  in  reading  the  devices  borne  by  social- 


,r. 


THE  GOTHENBURG  SYSTEM 


ists  in  the  first  of  May  demonstration  in  Christiania. 
There  were  "Down  with  Altar  and  Throne," 
"War  is  Murder  of  Brothers,"  and  "Away  with  In- 
toxicants." Not  a  suggestion  of  "The  Poor  Man 
Should  have  his  Beer,"  or  "Save  Us  Our  Tidy,  Well- 
regulated  Cheerful  Club,  the  Samlag  Shop,  Where 
There  Is  No  Pushing,  Where  Nobody  Makes  Any 
Money  Out  of  Us,  Where  Everything  Is  As  Delight- 
ful As  It  Is  Disinterested,  Where  Excess  Is  Never 
Seen,  Where  There  Is  An  Atmosphere  Of  Correcti- 
tude  Unequalled  Out  Of  Boston." 

No,  the  real  wage-worker  knows  better  about  the 
System  shops.  My  eye  lighted  recently  on  the  de- 
scription of  one  such  in  "Verdandisten" — the  organ  of 
the  Swedish  temperance  socialists.  Those  who  make 
it  a  point  "to  see  the  best  that  glimmers  through  the 
worst"  are  welcome  to  do  with  it  what  they  can. 

"In  the  country  mother  earth  produces  as  in  early 
times  without  regard  to  the  hard  competition  which 
rules  in  our  cities.  The  peasant  harrows  and  sows  and 
harvests  not  without  labor  and  sweat.  Now  the  barns 
are  full  and  the  products  of  the  soil  and  pasture  ready 
for  city  markets.  Our  countryman  shall  now  get  his 
reward  for  his  long  toil. 

"It  is  Saturday  and  market  day  in  the  city.  In 
long  rows  stand  the  carts,  barrels,  and  baskets  of  the 
country-folk.  Loads  of  straw  and  hay,  grain,  eggs, 
potatoes,  fish  and  meat  are  all  about.  It  is  a  long 
way  to  market  and  profits  are  considerably  lessened 
when  one  reckons  the  time  spent  in  going  and  coming, 


THE  GOTHENBURG  SYSTEM  ^^ 

but  as  our  proverb  says,  'Flying  crows  pick  up  a 
dinner;  sitting  ones  get  nothing.*  Purchasers  are 
numerous  and  much  business  gets  itself  done.  The 
wagons  are  empty  again. 

"At  one  corner  of  the  market  stands  a  notorious 
drink-shop,  a  veritable  scourge  for  the  peasants.  At 
the  unpainted  tables  sit  helpless  men,  some  sleeping, 
some  shouting  monotonously  painful  melodies,  some 
swearing  and  striking  their  clenched  fists  so  that  the 
beer  mugs  are  upset  and  their  contents  run  in  streams 
mingling  with  vomit  and  urine  on  the  floor.  At  the 
bar  stands  the  girl  opening  bottles.  Money  runs  in  a 
steady  stream  into  her  till.  It  is  the  billowy  grain 
fields,  the  products  of  the  dairy,  the  hard  weeks  of 
labor  which  now  as  ringing  coin  pass  into  the  drawer. 

"The  money  begins  to  give  out.  The  drinkers 
can  get  no  more  drink.  This  angers  them  and  the  fight- 
ing begins.  They  push  each  other  out.  The  police  ap- 
pear and  drag  one  after  another  to  the  lockup.  Some 
are  carried  to  the  wagons,  the  horses  are  untied  and 
start  off  on  the  run,  irritated  with  cold  and  the  inces- 
sant whippings  which  they  now  receive.  Meanwhile 
fights  started  in  the  drink  shops  are  continued  in  the 
market  place.'* 

What  a  picture  of  "the  poor  man's  club !"  In  the 
Paris  colloquial  such  a  place  is  called  a  bludgeon 
'un  assomoir."  It  is  where  men  are  "assome" — 
knocked  down,  mauled,  oppressed  as  the  diction- 
ary defines  the  word.  I  suppose  no  one  ever 
heard  a  genuine  wage-worker  use  the  phrase  "the  poor 


78  THE  GOTHENBURG  SYSTEM 

man's  club."  It  drops  usually  from  the  mouths  of 
"delicate  handed 
snowy  banded" 
"society"  rectors  or  of  professors  in  our  seaboard  uni- 
versities. There  is  an  interesting  passage  in  Prince 
Krapotkine's  "Memoirs"  in  which  the  writer  describes 
the  uneasiness  which  the  work  people  on  his  Siberian 
expeditions  always  felt  when  drawing  near  to  a  town. 
They  feared  the  temptation  to  drink  and  the  danger  of 
arrest.  If  they  had  known  what  the  modern  alcohol 
investigation  has  revealed  their  fear  would  have  been 
far  more  intense. 

The  System  out  of  its  opulence  has  been  putting 
up  well-built  drink-shops  in  parts  of  Stockholm  where 
tourists  are  apt  to  wander.  These  are,  however,  merely 
the  Potemkin  villages  of  Gothenburgism.  Leave  Grev 
Thuregaten  and  Malmskilnadsgaten  and  go  into  the 
mean  streets.     There  you  find  mean  shops  to  match. 

To  call  the  saloon,  whether  of  the  American  or  of 
the  Scandinavian  type,  the  working  man's  club  is  an 
insult  to  those  w^ho  in  the  last  analysis  hold  up  our 
whole  social  structure  as  the  tortoise  the  Hindu  cos- 
mos. That  after  his  frugal  meal  of  "potatoes  and 
racket  gravy"  he  should  have  no  place  to  go  to  except 
these  dens  where  his  liver  is  hobnailed  and  his  kid- 
neys rotted,  where  he  is  sold  tuberculosis^^^  and  men- 

(O  To  frequent  a  drink-shop  is  one  of  the  most  certain 
ways  of  receiving  frequent  and  large  doses  of  infection  (of 
consumption  and  cancer.) — Sir  Victor  Horsley  "Alcohol  and 
the  Human  Body,"  p.  349. 


THE  GOTHENBURG  SYSTEM  79 

tally  stupified  is  a  shameful  indictment  of  our  social 
arrangements.  Until  we  can  do  better  every  basement 
in  the  school  and  other  public  buildings  of  our  Ameri- 
can cities  should  be  fitted  up  as  rest  and  recreation 
places  for  the  humbler  public. 

The  System  in  its  relation  to  the  poorer  strata  of 
society  stands  for  two  things — narcosis  of  the  masses 
and  taxes  from  the  masses.  Whatever  the  feeling  in 
America,  in  Europe  where  the  thought  of  the  revolu- 
tion always  lingers  in  society's  subliminal  conscious- 
ness, the  drinkshop  with  its  quieting  and  deadening  in- 
fluence is  undoubtedly  looked  upon  with  favor  by  the 
privileged.  It  is  no  accident  that  the  fight  against  the 
English  excise  reform  of  1908  was  led  by  Lord  Roth- 
schild. Dr.  Blocher  speaking  in  October,  1900,  to  a 
thousand  workmen  in  Vienna  was  stopped  by  the  po- 
lice when  he  began  on  the  stupefying  effects  of  alco- 
hol on  the  masses.  The  case  of  Dr.  Froehlich  is  even 
more  striking.  A  physician  in  the  Vienna  General 
Hospital,  a  convinced  socialist,  a  speaker  of  great 
power  and  warm  personality, — to  his  efforts  have  been 
chiefly  due  the  great  growth  of  abstinence  principles 
among  the  proletariat  of  Austria.  Four  years  ago  he 
started  on  a  lecture  tour  in  Germany.  His  agitation 
was  on  purely  anti-alcoholist  lines, — not  a  whisper  of 
revolutionary  socialism.  Yet  in  Dresden,  Breslau  and 
other  places  he  was  forbidden  to  speak  and  at  a  great 
meeting  in  the  English  garden  in  Kiel  was  interrupted 
by  gendarmerie  and  ordered  out  of  Prussia  in  three 
days. 


8o  THE  GOTHENBURG  SYSTEM 

But  besides  furnishing  a  social  chloroform,  the 
Gothenburg  System  in  common  with  excise  arrange- 
ments generally,  deflects  taxation  from  the  rich  to 
shoulders  least  able  to  bear  it.  The  income  from 
this  source  is  in  most  Swedish  towns  and  cities  the 
largest  single  payment  made.^^^  This  is  in  itself  a  pretty 
good  statement  of  the  System's  failure  as  a  temperance 
institution.  And  it  must  be  remembered  that  by  this 
tax  the  poorer  classes  are  victimised^^^ — self-victim- 
ised if  you  will  though  there  is  much  in  our  social  ar- 
rangements to  explain  and  even  excuse  the  fact.  Not 
long  since,  for  example,  a  general  strike  was  declared 
in  Helsingborg.    The  leaders  ordered  a  boycott  on  all 

(O  This  pecuniary  prosperity  gives  a  prestige  to  public 
poisoning  which  is  positively  immoral.  The  writer  recalls 
visiting  a  fine  new  church  in  Lysekil  largely  constructed  by 
the  profits  of  the  alcohol  shop.  The  founder  of  the  shop  had 
been  given  a  free  pew  in  perpetuam  and  was  the  only  citizen 
so  honored. 

(2)  "The  Gothenburg  System  has  degenerated  into  an 
institution  for  squeezing  the  poorest  of  our  population 
through  their  thirst  for  drink  in  order  to  get  money  to  ease 
the  tax  burden  of  the  well-situated  classes.  It  has  altogether 
lost  its  philanthropic  character.  It  keeps  the  wage-worker 
on  a  low  cultural  and  social  plane.  It  is  a  typical  illustration 
of  communal  greed  and  selfishness.  The  most  scandalous 
inhumanity  thrives  year  after  year  and  the  worst  breaches  of 
law  are  practised  in  the  Company's  drink-shops.  Away  with 
the  blood  money  of  the  Gothenburg  System!  Away  with 
this  thoroughly  corrupted  institution!" 

Ulrich:  "Goteborgs  Systemet  och  dess  Anvandning  i 
Stockholm  och  Goteborg,"  p.  37. 


THE  GOTHENBURG  SYSTEM  8i 

the  shops  of  the  System  and  posted  pickets^  at  the  door 
of  each  saloon  to  urge  workingmen  not  to  enter.  The 
result  on  the  day  reported — June  ii,  1908, — was  that 
the  money  taken  over  the  bars  of  the  city  was  not 
enough  to  pay  the  bar-girls  wages  for  the  day. 

If  such  a  strike  against  drink  could  be  made  per- 
manent, and  this  is  what  the  Swedish  socialists  have 
declared  for  by  their  advocacy  of  prohibitory  legisla- 
tion, other  sources  of  taxation  would  have  to  be  tap- 
ped. It  is  this  indeed  which  is  leading  many  Swedish 
temperance  workers  to  mobilise  behind  Henry 
George's  theory  in  preparation  for  an  attack  on  the 
unearned  increment.  ^^^  And  it  is  doubtless  for  this 
reason  that  vested  interests  find  the  Gothenburg  Sys- 
tem so  "satisfactory  in  its  moral  workings." 

At  the  present  writing  there  is  a  noticeable  move- 
ment among  the  work  people  in  Sweden  towards  peti- 
tioning for  some  slight  relief  from  the  blessings  the 
System  brings.  The  early  closing  of  the  shops  in 
Gothenburg  during  the  present  season  of  industrial 
depression  has  given  hope  of  similar  action  elsewhere. 
The  White  Ribbon  Society  of  Stockholm  has  received 
a  petition  for  forwarding  to  the  Bolag  authorities  from 
women  and  children  of  wageworkers  for  Sunday  clos- 
ing of  the  drink  places  in  that  city  as  well  as  for  the 
suppression  of  the  sale  of  drink  when  food  is  not  sold 
and  for  early  closing  on   Saturday.     Encouraged  by 

(O  See  Hansson's  "Jordvardebeskattning  i  stallet  for 
Rusdrycksbeskattning,"  pp.  21,  22. 


82  THE. GOTHENBURG  SYSTEM 

early  closing  in  their  city,  Gothenburg  workmen  have 
asked  for  one  o'clock  closing  on  every  day  in  the  week. 
This  has  been  declined  on  the  ground  that  said  petition 
"has  not  come  from  suitable  parties." 

In  Landskrona  an  association  of  the  unemployed 
has  sent  to  the  magistrates  this  petition. 

•  "Our  union  of  unemployed  observes  with  pain 
how  many  persons  in  this  period  of  need  and  depres- 
sion continue  to  buy  drink  with  money  they  need  for 
other  and  useful  purposes,  and  respectfully  beg  the 
magistracy  to  seek  some  way  of  preventing  this  state 
of  things.  Best  would  it  be  in  our  judgment  if  the 
drinkshops  were  all  closed  during  this  slack  period 
but  if  this  is  too  radical,  a  limitation  of  hours  would  be 
of  great  advantage. 

"In  many  a  workingman's  home  the  need  is  far 
greater  than  it  otherwise  would  be  because  the  wages 
are,  week  after  week,  spent  for  drink  instead  of  for 
family  supplies.  To  appeal  to  the  better  instincts  of 
the  drinker  does  not  avail.  Such  are  no  longer  in  pos- 
session of  a  free  will.  They  cannot  desist  from  drink- 
ing. 

"For  this  reason  the  authorities  should  at  least 
limit  the  hours  of  sale  and  the  quantity  any  given  in- 
dividual can  buy.  This  is  especially  necessary  at  a 
time  of  want  and  unemployment.  Well  would  it  be 
if  at  all  times  drinkers  should  be  obliged  to  abstain 
from  a  low  and  coarse  pleasure  which  increases  their 
misery  and  destroys  their  moral  and  physical  health." 

A  socialist  temperance  lodge  in  Arboga  recently 


THE  GOTHENBURG  SYSTEM  83 

issued  an  appeal  to  workmen  to  keep  away  from  the 
drinkshop.  It  was  posted  on  the  billboards  of  the 
town  but  was  torn  down  by  the  city  treasurer  (signifi- 
cant fact!)  Again  it  was  put  up;  again  torn  down. 
Here  is  a  part  of  this  dangerous  document : 

"Workmen,  Comrades. 

"Avoid  the  drink-shop.  Don't  visit  these  miserable 
nests  which  are  set  up  to  pull  you  down,  to  keep  you 
in  ignorance  and  to  rob  you  of  your  hard  earnings. 
Don't  be  misled  by  the  enticements  of  the  brewer  and 
the  saloon-keeper.  Thousands  upon  thousands  are 
pining  behind  Swedish  prison  walls  because  of  drink, 
thousands  upon  thousands  of  homes  are  laid  waste  be- 
cause of  the  same  drink  and  thousands  and  thousands 
of  hungry  children  cry  themselves  to  sleep  because  of 
the  ravages  of  this  terrible  evil. 

"But  in  their  elegant  palaces  beer  and  brandy 
kings  roll  in  luxury  at  the  cost  of  hungry,  weeping 
women  and  children. 

Comrades,  give  nothing  to  your  enemies ! 
Comrades,  shun  the  saloon !" 

Some  one  will  perhaps  object  that  a  large  part  of 
the  moneys  taken  from  the  poor  returns  to  them  in  the 
form  of  relief  and  of  free  institutional  arrangments  of 
various  sorts.  The  list  of  the  donations  to  charities 
made  by  the  Hamar  Samlag  is  before  me.  On  the  face 
of  it  it  seems  a  fairly  satisfactory  document.  From  the 
surplus  of  the  business  400  kroner  are  given  to  an 
orphan  asylum,  500  kroner  to  clothing  poor  children, 
300  to  poor  relief,  300  to  a  hospital,  300  to  a  workman's 


84  THE  GOTHENBURG  SYSTEM 

academy,  500  to  a  cooking  school,  and  so  on  down  a 
quarter  of  a  column  of  a  newspaper, — Sunday  schools 
and  mission  halls  not  being  forgotten,  either,  in  the 
kindly  distribution.^'^ 

The  particular  vice  of  the  vicious  circle  which 
such  reports  represent  seems  to  one  person  at  least  to 
be  hypocrisy.  The  fines  for  drunkenness  in  Stock- 
holm are  estimated  by  the  editor  of  "Verdandisten"  to 
have  amounted  in  1908  to  something  like  222,000  kron- 
er. Most  of  this  comes  from  the  poorest  of  the  poor. 
The  amount  granted  this  year  by  the  Swedish  parlia- 
ment to  temperance  societies  and  various  forms  of  tem- 
perance work,  the  cure  of  drunkards  and  the  like,  was 
201,750  kroner — 20,000  kroner  less.  And  this  is  for  all 
Sweden  while  the  above  mentioned  fine  money  came 
from  Stockholm  alone. 

Mr.  Jonsson  of  Hokhult,in  his  motion  for  local  option 
in  the  Riksdag  mentioned  the  fact  that  there  are  today 
more  than  50,000  drunkards  in  Sweden.  Such  is  one 
fruit  of  the  Gothenburg  System.  For  the  cure  of  these 
alcohol-sick  the  Riksdag  of  1909  set  apart  50,500  kron- 

(O  It  has  been  recently  remarked  that  this  particular 
Samlag  refused  to  make  a  grant  to  the  Orje  Sanatorium  for 
the  Cure  of  Alcoholists  but  in  1908  gave  1109  kroner  and  in 
1909,  255  more  to  a  Festivity  Hall  in  Hamar  and  gave  re- 
bates on  liquors  sold  to  a  gathering  of  singing  clubs  at  Nes 
to  such  a  point  that  these  liquors  were  actually  delivered 
below  cost!  The  management  defended  itself  against  the 
complaint  of  the  government  auditor  by  explaining  that  these 
reductions  were  made  for  business  reasons. 


THE  GOTHENBURG  SYSTEM  85 

er — 27  cents  apiece.  But  four  times  as  much — 222,0000 
kroner — was  according  to  Mr.  Tornfelt's  estimate 
mulcted  from  the  alcohol-sick  of  Stockholm  alone. 

The  shamhumanitarianism  of  Gothenburgism  could 
have  no  more  vivid  illustration.  Whatever  little  re- 
lief the  poor  get  is  but  a  percentage  from  the  pickings 
of  their  pockets.  If  they  keep  hold  of  their  saloon 
money  they  will  need  little  charity  and  any  such  help 
would  then  be  genuine. 

One  of  the  most  striking  reports  from  the  great 
local  option  war  in  Ohio  in  1909  is  that  after  prohibi- 
tion it  is  almost  impossible  to  get  washerwomen  in 
"dry"  towns.  Wives  of  drinking  men  are  now  support- 
ed as  they  should  be.  Similar  stories  came  from  Kan- 
sas when  the  joints  were  closed.  The  shoe  dealers 
never  sold  so  many  women's  and  children's  shoes.  If 
the  Gothenburg  System  had  been  set  up  in  these  places 
the  women  would  still  be  washing,  the  shoes  would  be 
in  the  show  windows,  and  the  various  denominational 
and  fraternal  societies  would  be  rivals  for  the  profits 
of  the  common  wealth  from  common  woe  which  the 
System  brings.  For  this  is  a  thing  which  is  too  often 
forgotten.  Scandinavia  is  a  homogeneous  land  racially 
and  religiously.  It  is  a  land  too  without  political  in- 
trigue and  graft.  The  immense  sums  to  be  divided 
among  asylums  and  hospitals  and  institutions  of  diff- 
ering folks  and  faiths  in  America  would  be  a  fruitful* 
source  of  discord  and  logrolling.  The  right  of  dis- 
tribution would  be  a  basis  for  machine  action  with 


86  THE  GOTHENBURG  SYSTEM 

hardly  a  parallel  in  our  present  system/^^  The  only 
wisdom  is  to  keep  the  money  in  the  pockets  of  those 
who  earn  it/3) 

(2)  "It  gives  influence  and  prestige  to  sit  on  the  direc- 
torate of  the  Samlag  and  to  distribute  moneys  to  hungry  in- 
stitutions."   Scharffenberg's  Kampen  mod  Alkoholen  i  Norge, 

p.  7. 

(3)  The  following  incident  will  ilustrate  the  short  sight- 
edness  of  the  admirers  of  the  Samlag  charity  system: 

In  a  fight  against  the  Samlag  in  a  small  Norwegian 
town  one  of  the  prohibitionists  asked  an  old  woman  if  she 
would  not  vote  against  the  drink-shop.  No,  she  wouldn't; 
she  earned  a  kroner  every  Saturday  washing  for  the  Samlag. 

"But  haven't  you  a  husband  who  earns  something?" 

"Yes  he  earns  14  kroner  a  week  in  a  saw-mill." 

"But  that's  surely  enough  for  you?" 

"For  the  land's  sake,  I  don't  get  anything  of  that.  He 
drinks  his  whole  pay  up  at  the  Samlag." — Menneskevennen. 
Sept.  6,  07. 


UNIVERSITY 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

Violation  of  Law  Under  the  System. 

"And  Trinculo  is  reeling  ripe.     Where  should  they 
find  this  grand  liquor  that  hath  gilded  them?" 

— The   Tempest. 

By  means  of  the  prohibitory  law  Americans  get 
rid  of  legal  sale.  There  often  remains  however  a 
troublesome  though  exaggerated  illicit  sale  which 
time,  patience,  and  additional  federal  legislation  will 
reduce  to  a  minimum.  But  the  Gothenburg  System 
while  retaining  the  legal  sale,  and  that  is  its  essential 
evil,  gives  no  especial  guarantee  against  illegal  sale.  Its 
managers  violate  the  principles  at  least  of  the  System 
by  shipping  drink  into  no-license  territories.  They 
undoubtedly  often  sell  to  bootleggers  their  stock  in 
trade. 

We  have  referred  elsewhere  to  Egersund,  the 
town  nine-tenths  of  whose  Samlag's  sale  is  in  sur- 
rounding "dry"  territory.  The  city  government  and 
the  directorate  of  this  Samlag  are  one  and  the  same 
persons.  When,  therefore,  they  were  in  their  capacity 
of  city  fathers  appealed  to  by  individuals  and  societies 
in  prohibition  Stavanger  not  to  send  drink  into  that 
city  they  naturally  enough  did  not  see  their  way  clear 
to  intervene.  Later,  however,  it  was  agreed  not  to 
ship  drink  to  a  place  if  the  authorities  of  that  place 


88  THE  GOTHENBURG  SYSTEM 

requested  them  to  refrain.  But  they  have  not  kept 
their  promise.  Drink  has  been  sent  to  neighboring 
places  and  then  trans-shipped  to  "dry"  towns.  It  has 
also  been  sent  to  false  addresses. 

The  editor  of  the  "Egersund  Post"  is  chairman  of 
the  Samlag.  Consul  Puntervold,  a  shareholder,  sent 
to  the  paper  criticisms  of  the  Samlag's  management. 
He  was  denied  access  to  its  columns.  He  stated 
therefore  on  a  flier  which  he  sent  about  the  place  that 
the  management  paid  to  the  city  exorbitant  rents  for 
its  building,  in  this  way  giving  the  city  money  which 
ought  to  have  gone  to  the  Norwegian  state. ^^^ 

It  has  further  paid  excessive  salaries — five  times 
as  much  to  its  auditor  as  the  auditor  of  the  commune 
is  paid, — extra  pay  to  a  director  "for  making  addresses 
and  writing  articles  in  defense  of  the  Samlag,"  etc. 

Abuses  in  little  Egersund !  What  would  there  not 
be  in  Boston  or  New  York? 

On  the  North  Cape  a  drink  shop  affiliated  with  the 
System  has  been  opened  for  those  philistine  tourists 
who  cannot  enjoy  the  glory  of  the  midnight  sun 
without  wine.  It  was  not  expected  that  this  shop 
would  sell  to  fishermen  and  country  folk  round  about. 

(O  Mr.  Oskar  Petersson  intimates  that  similar  tricks  are 
played  in  Sweden.  In  a  large  city  on  the  west  coast  the 
Bolag  threatened  to  suspend  selling  altogether  because  the 
city  interfered  with  its  building  plans.  Up  to  that  time  it 
had  hired  its  selling  place  from  the  city  at  an  unreasonably 
high  rate  and  the  city  authorities  did  not  wish  to  lose  this 
golden  egg. — Svenska  Rusdryckslagstiftningen,  p.  58. 


THE  GOTHENBURG  SYSTEM  89 

The  law  indeed  allows  this  but  the  alleged  moral  and 
restraining  influense  of  the  System  ought  to  have 
been  a  guarantee  against  it.  "I  notice,"  writes  an 
indignant  correspondent,  "boat  after  boat  coming 
from  Gjaesvaer  and  other  adjacent  fishing  villages  to 
buy  wine  and  recall  with  a  shudder  the  conditions  in 
which  they  return  home.  Many  a  poor  fisherman  has 
spent  100  kroner  there.  Nowhere  in  Norway  are  the 
regulations  of  the  law  more  violated.  They  sell  night 
and  day;  Sunday  and  holiday."  (Correspondence  in 
Menneskevennen,  5,  June,  1908.) 

The  ''Karlstad  Tidning"  (June,  1909)  writes  of 
the  Bolag  shops  of  that  city:  "All  our  drink-selling 
places  without  exception  act  in  the  most  irresponsible 
way  towards  confirmed  drunkards.  None  know  better 
who  have  reached  this  stage  of  the  vice  than  the  per- 
sonnel of  these  places.  Yet  they  rarely  make  any  at- 
tempt to  prevent  drunkards  from  getting  drunk.  *He 
is  a  good  customer.  We  can't  very  well  refuse  such 
a  one  what  he  a§ks  for.  It  is  the  morality  of  the  busi- 
ness to  treat  purchasers  well.'  " 

At  a  recent  meeting  of  the  municipal  authorities  of 
the  Swedish  town  of  Saeter  a  protest  was  issued 
against  the  phrase  used  by  the  management  of  the 
local  Gothenburg  System  Company  to  the  effect  that 
their  activity  was  "in  the  interest  of  morality."  As 
indicating  how  far  from  the  truth  this  was,  the  fact 
was  adduced  that  at  times  when  the  police  had  ordered 
the  shutting  up  of  the  Company  drink-shop  they  had 
actually  kept  it  open.    By  a  large  majority  the  follow- 


90  THE  GOTHENBURG  SYSTEM 

ing  statement  was  adopted :  "Under  no  circumstances 
can  the  traffic  in  intoxicants  be  spoken  of  as  being 
carried  on  in  the  interests  of  morality.  Least  of  all  can 
this  claim  be  justified  in  the  case  of  the  institution  in 
Saeter  where  it  violates  the  laws  laid  down  by  the 
city  government.  We  make  as  the  responsible  leaders 
of  the  city,  a  distinct  protest  against  this  contention 
as  to  the  moral  character  of  the  Company  drink-shop." 

One  would  suppose  that  in  Gothenburg,  the  home 
of  the  System,  whither  the  already  convinced  go  from 
England  and  America  to  study  its  working  and  whence 
they  return  with  such  expectedly  rosy  reports,  there 
would  be  no  law  breaking  on  the  part  of  the  manage- 
ment.   Not  so! 

An  observer  examining  the  situation  here  writes 
to  the  "National  Kuriren" : 

"One  can  see  the  drink-shop  a  long  way  off. 
Outside  stands  a  line  of  people,  among  them  many 
children,  waiting  their  turn.  A  large  number  of  them 
are  semi-intoxicated.  All  shiver  in  tHe  cold  and  some 
swear  because  things  do  not  move  more  quickly.  A 
policeman  from  time  to  time  straightens  out  the  line 
of  drunk  and  sober.  After  an  interval  each  has  made 
his  purchases.  Sober  and  drunk  leave  the  place  to- 
gether with  the  bottle  or  bottles  which  they  have 
bought. 

"But! — drunken  people  and  minors  are  according 
to  the  law  not  allowed  to  purchase  drink.  This  is  ex- 
pressly forbidden  by  the  royal  regulations  of  the  9th 


THE  GOTHENBURG  SYSTEM  91 

of  June,  1905.  Nevertheless  it  is  done  in  broad  day- 
light and  as  a  matter  of  course. 

"Again.  Just  opposite  a  third-class  saloon  of  the 
Gothenburg  System  a  crowd  of  people  have  gathered. 
They  are  watching  a  man  beastly  drunk  lying  in  the 
gutter  outside.  He  has  just  been  thrown  out  by  the 
drink  seller  after  having  sat  the  whole  day  spending 
the  money  he  had  saved  in  the  house  of  correction  at 
Svartsjo,  where  he  had  broken  stone  for  months  be- 
cause the  drink  sold  him  by  our  moral  institution  had 
been  too  much  for  him. 

"But! — the  royal  regulations  say  definitely  in  the 
31st  paragraph:  *A  drunken  person  may  not  be 
turned  out  of  a  drinkshop  where  he  has  been  drinking 
or  left  without  supervision.' 

"And  once  again.  Your  correspondent  happened 
recently  into  a  suburban  inn.  There,  too,  he  noticed 
violations  of  law.  The  royal  regulations,  paragraph  6, 
say :  'Innkeepers  are  not  allowed  to  serve  beer  unless 
at  the  same  time  food  is  ordered." 

"But ! — the  clause  was  being  scandalously  violated. 
A  large  number  of  people  were  in  the  dining  room 
drinking.  No  food  was  to  be  seen.  Intoxicated  per- 
sons entered  and  were  served  drink.  People  not  in- 
toxicated were  plied  with  drink  until  they  became  so. 
The  noisy  ones  were  unceremoniously  ejected  as  the 
evening  wore  on.  Violation  of  this  type  is  so  common 
that  it  is  a  question  if  people  generally  realize  that  it 
is  a  breach  of  law. 

"And  still  again.  Passing  another  place  we  noticed 


92  THE  GOTHENBURG  SYSTEM 

a  group  of  loafers  who  were  putting  together  money 
enough  to  purchase  another  liter  of  spirits  after  they 
had  finished  together  one  bottle.  One  of  the  party 
took  the  money  and  went  into  the  Company  Shop  to 
buy  a  bottle  the  contents  of  which  he  would  then  sell 
to  his  cronies. 

"But! — the  law  forbids  all  such  subselling.  Yet 
as  in  the  other  case  such  violations  of  law  are  of  daily, 
rather  hourly  occurence  throughout  the  year." 

Mr.  Oskar  Petersson,  who  has  made  a  searching 
critique  of  the  System,  says  that  in  the  yearly  reports 
of  the  Swedish  Finance  Department  there  are  many 
severe  references  to  the  actions  of  a  large  number  of 
Companies.  These  strictures  especially  relate  to  un- 
justifiable incomes  which  have  come  to  various  indi- 
viduals and  institutions  from  the  Company  and 
secondly,  to  abuses  in  the  system  of  letting  out  rights 
of  retailing  drink  to  affiliated  drink-shops. 

Many  Bolags  have  attempted  to  increase  their  in- 
come by  sending  out  agents  to  push  the  trade  (liter- 
ally so!  *'For  uppdrivande  af  affaren!")  and  by  re- 
ducing prices  before  church  holidays  as  Easter  and 
Christmas. 

These  attempts  to  stimulate  trade  have  been  made 
sometimes  for  the  sake  of  the  legitimate  dividings  be- 
tween state  and  charitable  institutions,  sometimes  to 
increase  the  incomes  of  directors  and  administrators. 
A  certain  per  cent  of  the  income  has  gone  to  different 
servants  of  the  company  as  additional  pay. 

Other  ways  of  milking  the  Company  have  been, — 


THE  GOTHENBURG  SYSTEM  93 

a.  Charging  it  unreasonable  rents  and  pocketing  the 
increased  charge;  b.  taking  rebates  which  really  be- 
longed to  the  Company ;  c.  buying  spirits  from  the  dis- 
tillers on  credit  and  charging  the  Company  commis- 
sions for  advancing  money,  etc. 

The  system  of  subletting  has  opened  the  way  for 
great  abuses.  Mr.  Petersson  mentions  one  Company 
which  rented  out  all  its  licenses,  not  operating  a  single 
one  itself!  Some  of  these  sub-sellers  of  the  System 
have  received  their  right  to  sell  that  they  may  deal  in 
finer  grades  of  liquors  but  as  a  matter  of  fact  sell  the 
wretchedest  kinds  of  cognac. 

He  also  gives  a  vivid  picture  of  how  the  law  is 
violated  as  to  closing  at  ten  o'clock  at  night  in  an 
affiliated  restaurant  of  the  better  sort  under  the  Goth- 
enburg System.  The  police  telephone  that  they  are 
coming  for  inspection  and  when  they  arrive  two  hours 
after  closing  time  lights  are  all  put  out  and  the  guests 
sit  still  in  darkness. 

When  the  police  commissioners  asked  why  the 
restaurants  at  Hasselbacken  —  the  well-known  Stock- 
holm resort — were  not  closed  at  the  time  of  evening 
service  on  Sunday  as  the  law  requires,  one  of  the 
restaurateurs  bluntly  said:  "That  would  never  do. 
There  would  certainly  be  a  riot."  And  to  such  law- 
breakers the  Gothenburg  System  sublets  the  right  of 
drink-selling.^^^ 

(O  O.  Petersson  "Svenska  rusdryckslagstiftningen  och 
Goteborgs  Systemet,"  pp.  30-31  and  40-43- 


94  THE  GOTHENBURG  SYSTEM 

When  Caligula  was  reproached  by  Antonia,  his 
grandmother,  for  some  bad  deed,  he  retorted  with 
astonished  eyes,  "Have  you  forgotten  that  all  things 
are  allowed  me?"  This  is  the  attitude  of  Pabst  and 
Schlitz  and  Blatz  and  Seipp  and  Busch — the  beer 
uitlanders.  The  brewer  is  the  chief  hindrance  to  the 
enforcement  of  liquor  laws  in  the  United  States. 

The  temper  of  this  personage  is  much  the  same  in 
Scandinavia.  The  System  having  nothing  to  do  with 
the  manufacture  is  powerless  to  control  him,  which  is 
the  capital  reason  why  its  adoption  in  the  United 
States  would  be  so  futile  a  move.  His  bootlegging 
agents  when  in  trouble  are  reasonably  secure  of  having 
their  fines  paid  for  them  by  some  one  higher  up.  Beer 
is  packed  and  shipped  like  mineral  waters  for  the  con- 
venience of  violators.  "During  the  field  manoevres 
at  Jederen  last  week"  so  runs  a  clipping  before  me, 
"there  were  many  complaints  of  traders  bringing  beer 
to  sell  to  soldiers  and  sight-seers.  One  man  is  said  to 
have  disposed  of  a  hundred  cases  of  beer  in  this  way. 
Where  were  the  police?" 

So  even  if  the  Samlag  were  really  a  sort  of  air- 
tight stove  which  kept  the  fire  strictly  confined  it 
would  be  of  little  protection  to  "Mother  Norway." 
Another  fire  burns  merrily  all  the  while  out  of  sight  in 
the  plaster.  Here  is  an  illustration  of  the  lawlessness 
of  Norwegian  brewerdom.  The  keeper  of  the  skyds- 
station  in  Mysen  in  Smaalene  trading  in  drink  con- 
trary to  the  law,  as  the  brewers  who  supplied  him  well 
knew,  returned   in  nine  months,   1904-05,  to  various 


THE  GOTHENBURG  SYSTEM  95 

breweries  230  cases  of  empty  bottles.  There  were 
many  tragic  consequences  of  this  blind  tiger's  activity. 
Thus  one  evening  a  young  man  stopped  at  the  station  \ 
on  his  way  to  Christiania  where  he  was  to  be  married. 
He  had  500  kroner  on  him.  He  began  drinking,  lost 
his  money  at  cards,  and  on  reaching  Christiania  at- 
tempted in  his  desperation  to  shoot  both  his  sweetheart 
and  himself.  He  was  punished,  but  the  blind  pig  and 
,the  brewer  swineherds  of  Christiania  remained  un- 
touched. 

It  is  not  necessary  to  multiply  instances.  We  will 
give  but  two  more,  one  from  the  Swedish  capital  and 
one  from  the  Norwegian. 

"Social-Demokraten"  of  Stockholm  some  time 
since  described  a  blind  pig  in  that  city  whose  sales  are 
constantly  increasing.  The  proprietor  who  is  nomi- 
nally a  cigar-dealer  buys  brandy  en  gros  and  bottles  it 
in  half  liter  flasks  which  he  sells  at  a  considerable 
profit.  "J^st  ask  for  a  white  cigar  and  you  will  get 
your  bottle."  The  business  is  quite  lively  perhaps 
three  hundred  bottles  a  week  being  sold. 

"Afton-Posten"  of  Christiania  says:  'Tn  spite  of 
all  measures  it  has  been  impossible  to  stop  the  sale  of 
furniture  polish  for  drink  to  the  lazzaroni  of  the  city. 
It  is  bought  from  masked  brandy  shops  operating  as 
shellac  stores.  Bottles  containing  spirits  with  a  little 
coloring  matter  to  give  the  appearance  of  shellac  and  a 
slight  tincture  of  the  latter  to  enable  the  seller  to 
truthfully  excuse  himself  to  the  police,  constitute  the 
stock    in    trade    of    these    ingenious     law-breakers. 


96  THE  GOTHENBURG  SYSTEM 

Women,  too,  engage  in  the  business.  One  of  these 
female  'gaukerinde'  has  profited  so  largely  by  this 
lucrative  trade  that  she  is  now  able  to  live  a  care- 
free existence  in  America." 

The  nullification  of  liquor  laws  under  whatsoever 
system  it  occurs  raises  the  whole  drink  question  to  a 
level  of  the  highest  constitutional  importance.  Is  the  law 
to  be  supreme?  Is  majority  rule  to  be  the  norm  of 
legislation?  Are  statutes  to  be  repealed  or  altered  at. 
the  will  of  those  who  wish  to  break  them?  Open  the 
dikes  at  one  point  and  we  will  soon  be  submerged  at 
every  point. 

The  Sunday  closing  law  of  St.  Louis  was  for  years 
nullified  by  the  brewers.  "Repeal  it  therefore,"  said 
President  Eliot  in  his  contribution  to  the  Report  of  the 
Committee  of  Fifty.  A  wiser  and  firmer  man,  Gov. 
Folk,  effected  its  rigid  enforcement.  Darwin  speaks 
in  one  of  his  letters  of  the  law  against  sending  sweeps 
up  chimneys.  "It  makes  one  shudder,"  said  he,  "to 
fancy  one  of  one's  own  children  at  seven  years  being 
forced  up  a  chimney,  to  say  nothing  of  the  consequent 
loathsome  disease  and  ulcerated  limbs  and  utter  moral 
degradation.  Yet  the  brutal  Shropshire  squires  are  as 
hard  as  stones  to  move.  The  Act  out  of  London 
seems  most  commonly  violated." 

Some  would  have  gasped  "You  can't  enforce  it; 
be  satisfied  with  regulations.  Let  it  apply  only  to  the 
smallest  chimneys  and  the  most  dangerous."  But 
Darwin's  clear-headed  sister,  Susan,  prototype  of  so 
many  clear-headed  American  temperance  women,  or- 


THE  GOTHENBURG  SYSTEM  97 

ganized  a  society  and  prosecuted  the  offenders.  And 
this  is  the  only  thing  to  be  done  under  all  such  cir- 
cumstances. 

If  the  management  of  the  Gothenburg  System 
were  really  interested  in  temperance,  as  is  supposed  by 
many,  they  would  not  only  obey  all  regulations  for 
preventing  drunkenness  but  would  of  their  own  initi- 
ative do  many  things  which  would  materially  help  on 
the  fight  against  alcoholism.  They  could  make  of  their 
sales  rooms  for  bottled  goods  (Minut-Handel)  a  per- 
manent anti-alcohol  exhibition  like  the  traveling  ones 
of  Switzerland.  The  thousand  and  one  weighty  facts 
which  the  alcohol  research  has  given  us  could  be 
brought  to  the  knowledge  of  precisely  that  constitu- 
ency which  needs  most  to  know  them.  On  the  walls 
of  the  drinking  places  quotations  from  Forel  and  Krae- 
pelin  and  Legrain  would  dissuade  drinkers  from  slow 
suicide.  On  the  labels  of  bottles  medico-hygienic 
matter  in  regard  to  alcohol  of  the  first  importance  could 
be  printed.  Wrapping  paper  would  be  a  useful  ve- 
hicle of  statistical  and  physiological  information — and 
so  on. 

But  the  System  if  it  will  not  dissuade  its  cus- 
tomers from  suicide  does  not  propose  to  commit  sui- 
cide itself.  The  enlightenment  of  the  public  as  to 
alcohol  is  the  last  thing  it  wishes. 

Finally.  Of  all  the  terrible  toxic  essences  ab- 
sinthe is  without  doubt  the  most  to  be  feared.  Bel- 
gium and  Switzerland — thoroughly  alcoholized  lands 
— prohibit  its  sale.    Holland  is  planning  to  do  the  same. 


98  TH:B;  aoTHENBURG  SYSTEM 

The  best  elements  in  France  lead  by  the  Academy  of 
Medicine  are  in  arms  against  it.  One  would  have  ex- 
pected that  the  Gothenburg  System  would  have  long 
since  taken  the  moderate  step  of  absinthe  prohibition. 
But  no.  It  has  no  scruples  in  dealing  in  this  absolutely 
lethal  poison. 

To  be  sure  the  System  has  lowered  the  alcoholic 
strength  of  "Company  nectar"  (i.  e.  potato  brandy) 
from  39.7  per  cent  to  39.2  per  cent  and  plumes  itself  on  its 
moral  self-restraint.  But  13  per  cent  of  the  yeast 
plant's  excrement  in  a  solution  is  enough  to  kill  the 
yeast-plant.  Nearly  three  times  that  strength  is  what 
the  Company  allows  for  the  sensitive  cells  of  the  human 
brain. 

To  expect  such  an  institution  to  look  after  the 
interests  of  temperance  would  indeed  be  as  the  Nor- 
wegian proverb  has  it  "setting  the  ram  to  guard  the 
oat-sack." 


CHAPTER  IX. 
A  Dam  of  Ice  and  the  Breakwater  of  Granite. 

"It  is  not  wise  men  who  build  dams  of  ice  in  the  spring." 
— Swedish  proverb. 

In  Norway  the  first  movement  after  the  passage 
of  the  local  option  law  of  1894  was  towards  closing  the 
drink-shops.  Twenty-seven  cities  voted  dry  out  of 
fifty-one.  Then  followed  a  slight  reaction.  Seven 
Samlags  were  reinstated  and  only  two  shut  down. 
Rowntree  and  Sherwell  made  much  of  this  lapse. 

But  the  next  stadium  has  been  distinctly  prohibi- 
tionist again.  It  is  as  if  the  Norwegian  electorate  real- 
ised that  after  all  its  first  intuitions  were  the  right 
ones.  There  are  now  thirty-six  dry  cities  against 
twenty-seven  wet,  th«  rural  districts  at  large  being 
under  prohibition.  In  the  local  option  contests  of  1907, 
out  of  13  wet  cities  contested  the  temperance  party 
won  six.  It  is  a  striking  fact  showing  how  satisfied  the 
people  are  with  prohibition  that  in  only  six  of  the  pro- 
hibition cities  did  the  alcohol  interest  attempt  to  bring 
back  the  Samlag  and  in  all  of  these  they  were  defeated. 
It  may  be  added  that  in  the  19  local  option  contests  of 
1907  the  votes  stood  21,942  dry  to  16,238  wet.  In 
the  preceding  election  the  same  cities  gave  13,641  dry 
and  19,457  wet.  The  result  shows  clearly  enough 
whither  the  popular  consciousness  is  turning. 


lOO  THE  GOTHENBURG  SYSTEM 

If  the  Gothenburg  System  were  the  ideal  thing  it 
is  made  out  to  be,  its  agents  and  supporters,  one  would 
suppose,  would  hold  aloof  in  local  option  con- 
tests and  let  the  people  decide  the  question  on  its 
merits  without  their  intervention.  This  has  not  been 
the  case  however.  The  Samlag  fights  for  its  life  with 
all  the  tenacity  of  any  vulgar  American  saloon.  It 
does  not  hesitate  either  to  hit  below  the  belt.  In  the 
last  election  it  repeatedly  tried  to  muzzle  temperance 
workers.  The  eloquent  Pastor  Gunderson  was  threat- 
ened with  the  bishop's  interdict  against  his  speaking. 
To  cow  Dr.  Scharffenberg,  a  well-known  physician-  and 
*'Samlag  stormer"  holding  a  position  in  a  Christiania 
hospital,  suggestions  of  action  on  the  part  of  the  city 
government  were  bruited. 

In  Frederikstad  the  teachers  worked  against  the 
Samlag.  Therefore  they  must  be  punished.  Their  re- 
quest for  increase  in  salary,  previously  endorsed  by 
the  school  committee  and  city  authorities,  was  when 
the  result  of  the  local  option  vote  became  known, 
thrown  out  without  ceremony.  In  Honefos  where  the 
workingmen  fought  the  Samlag  they  too  were  pun- 
ished. How?  By  denying  free  school  material  to  their 
boys  and  girls.  Such  is  the  spirit  and  temper  of  the 
Norwegian  System  in  practise,  whatever  it  may  be  on 
paper. 

Facts  are  continually  cropping  up  which  explain 
this  envenomed  attitude.  It  has  been  recently  discov- 
ered for  example  that  the  largest  stock-holders  in  the 
Holen  Samlag  are  the  well-known  Christiania  whole- 


THE  GOTHENBURG  SYSTEM  loi 

sale  liquor  dealers,  Damman  and  Baltzersen  whose  ad- 
vertisements blazon  the  sides  of  the  daily  papers  of 
the  metropolis.  The  Samlag  is  presumably  an  outlet 
for  the  sale  of  their  wet  goods. 

It  is  not  surprising  that  the  Norwegians  are  get- 
ting weary  of  the  Samlag.  ^^^  If  you  open  the  official 
report  ^^^  of  the  System  for  1907  you  will  see  why. 
The  statistics  of  drunkenness  are  given  for  the  whole 
of  Norway  from  1866  to  1904, — an  entire  generation. 
Not  only  is  there  no  improvement  but  things  are  act- 
ually going  from  bad  to  worse.  Christiania's  arrests 
per  thousand  inhabitants  during  the  years  1866-70 
averaged  37.  In  1900-04  it  was  80,  or  more  than 
double.  Trondh Jem's  record  is  even  more  discourag- 
ing. The  average  number  of  arrests  have  risen  in  the 
same  group  of  years  from  19  to  70.  Bergen  is  practic- 
ally stationary  but  all  other  towns  together  show  in 


(O  According  to  article  7  of  their  program  the  temper- 
ance party  in  Norway  is  seeking  to  put  all  outstanding  private 
sale  under  the  System.  The  alcohol  capital  opposes  this. 
But  the  chief  reason  for  the  action  of  both  parties  does 
not  lie  in  any  anticipation  of  a  greatly  decreased  sale  in  case 
such  a  re-arrangement  of  the  retail  trade  take  place  though 
a  certain  decrease  would  perhaps  result.  It  is  because  this 
step  is  a  preliminary  to  prohibition.  Nero  wished  a  single 
head  for  the  Roman  people  that  he  might  cut  it  off  at  one 
blow.  The  temperance  party  seeks  to  concentrate  the  trade 
that  it  maj'  more  easily  destroy  it.  It  opposes  the  Samlag 
and  aims  at  ultimate  national  prohibition. 

(2)  Braendvins  Samlagene  og  Forbruket  av  Braendevin, 
vin  og  61  i  1907,  (p.  2^,  29.) 


102  THE  GOTHENBURG  SYSTEM 

this  period  an  average  increase  (from  23  to  49  arrests 
per  thousand.)  Even  the  prohibition  country  shares 
in  this  increase  (from  .9  to  2.7  arrests  per  thousand) 
but  the  slight  number  of  arrests  compared  with  that 
of  the  cities  shows  clearly  enough  prohibition's  advan- 
tages. If  the  Samlags  were  not  allowed  to  nullify 
the  prohibition  regime  in  the  country  districts  and  if 
the  sale  of  beer  were  universally  prohibited  there  as 
well  as  that  of  spirits,  this  increase  in  arrests  would 
presumably  not  have  to  be  registered. 

But  how,  some  one  will  ask,  does  the  fact  of  increas- 
ing drunkenness  square  with  Norway's  decliningalcohol 
consumption?  There  are  two  possible  explanations. 
Any  recent  decline  ^^^  comes  from  the  increasing  num- 

(i)  As  a  matter  of  fact  the  great  decline  in  Norwegian 
consumption  came  in  the  early  years  before  the  Samlag  was 
first  established.  It  was  a  direct  result  of  legislation  pro- 
hibiting home  distilling  and  prohibiting  sale  in  the  coun- 
try. Since  1870  when  the  Samlags  were  established  decline 
in  consumption  has  been  inconsiderable. 

Mr.  Andre,  manager  of  the  System  in  Gothenburg,  calls 
attention  to  the  fact  that  while  Denmark's  consumption  is 
10.87  liters  per  cap.,  Sweden's  4.5  liters  and  Norway's  2.69 
liters,  the  arrests  in  Copenhagen  are  only  7,797  or  20  in  the 
thousand  of  population  against  11,232  in  Stockholm  (37  to  the 
thousand),  and  in  Christiania  17,083  or  ^d  per  thousand.  In 
other  words  while  incomplete  prohibition  in  the  country  has 
cut  down  the  national  consumption  of  alcohol  in  Norway 
and  Sweden,  the  Samlag  in  the  capital  cities  has  pushed  the 
drunkenness  up  far  in  excess  of  that  of  drunken  Copenhagen 
with  its  free  sale.  In  view  of  such  facts  one  wonders  how  a 
"system"  so  little  "refutation  tight"  can  find  defenders  at  all. 


THE  GOTHENBURG  SYSTEM  103 

ber  of  abstainers  and  from  the  greater  prohibitory 
area.  Where  the  Samlag  operates  drunkenness  ad- 
vances. Christiania  is  the  citadel  of  the  system.  With 
only  one-tenth  of  the  nation's  population  it  consumes 
one-fourth  of  its  alcohol.  Director  Kjaer  made  in  1899- 
1900  a  study  of  the  capital's  drunkenness.  He  discov- 
ered among  other  things  that  of  the  male  population 
over  fifteen  years  who  drank  at  all,  16  per  cent  or 
9,600,  were  either  intemperate  or  pronounced  drunk- 
ards. 

From  Director's  Kjaer's  investigations  ^^^  it  ap- 
pears that  the  yearly  consumption  of  alcohol  per  cap- 
ita is: 

In  Christiania  under  the  System  (and  with  29 
private  dealers)  6^/2  liter  of  absolute  alcohol. 

In  the  other  cities  of  Norway  (some  under  prohi- 
bition and  some  under  Samlag)  43^  liters. 

In  the  country  under  prohibition  (but  overrun 
with  Samlag  brandy)  2  liters. 

In  1900  Christiania  had  13,890  arrests  for  drunk 
and  disorderly.  In  the  entire  country  districts  (exclud- 
ing all  cities)  the  aggregate  population  of  -which  is 
nearly  six  times  that  of  Christiania  there  were  but 
4,663  such  arrests.  ^3)  Not  far  from  18  times  as  many 
arrests  relatively  under  the  System  as  under  prohi' 
bition. 


(*)     Scharffenberg's   Kamp   mod  Alkoholen   i   Norge,   p. 
23- 

(3)     Scharffenberg's  Kamp  mod  Alkoholen  i  Norge,  p.  24. 


104  THE  GOTHENBURG  SYSTEM 

Any  objection  that  the  country  everywhere  shows 
up  better  than  the  city  begs  the  whole  question.  The 
first  reason  for  the  bad  record  of  the  city  is  its  alco- 
holism. 

The  statistics  of  death  from  alcoholism  are  quite 
as  convincing.  In  1900  the  rural  population  was  two 
and  a  half  times  that  of  the  combined  urban  population 
of  Norway.  But  the  deaths  from  acute  alcoholism  given  in 
physicians'  statements  between  1896  and  1900  were  a 
little  over  one-third  as  many  in  the  country  as  in  the 
cities,  38  against  95.  Here  again  the  prohibitory  re- 
gime, and  that  of  Norway  is  partial  and  defective, 
shows  up  better  than  the  System.(^> 

Another  proof  of  the  same  superiority  is  found  in 
Dr.  Scharffenberg's  tables  of  Sunday  arrests.  In 
Copenhagen  where  the  drink-shops  are  open  on  Sun- 
day the  number  of  arrests  exceeds  that  of  the  average 
on  'Week-days  (159  as  against  140).  In  Christiania 
the  Samlag  shops  are  closed  on  Sunday  and  holidays. 
On  the  61  such  days  in  1907  there  were  in  all  576  ar- 
rests, or  9-10  per  day.  The  average  for  the  week  days 
throughout  the  year  was  29  per  day.  Sunday  should 
have  the  largest  number  of  arrests,  being  a  day  of  un- 
employment, but  prohibition  keeps  down  the  number. 
While  in  certain  continental  cities  of  the  number  of 
assaults  35  to  46  per  cent  are  according  to  the  same 
tables  on  Sunday,  only  10  per  cent  in  Christiania  fall 

(i)     Scharffenberg's  Kamp  mod  Alkoholen  i  Norge,  p  24. 


THE  GOTHENBURG  SYSTEM  105 

on  that  day,  considerably  less  than  on  any  week  day/^^ 

From  Sweden  we  get  a  similar  story.  Mr.  S.  Wiesel- 
gren,  the  Company's  spokesman,  naively  says:  *'By 
prohibiting  the  sale  of  spirits  on  Sunday  the  Company 
is  continually  bringing  down  the  figures  of  drunken- 
ness for  that  day  in  Gothenburg!" 

Prohibition  is  not  widely  enough  developed  yet  in 
Scandinavia  to  give  us  extensive  comparative  evidence, 
yet  now  and  again  statistics  emerge  in  the  public  press 
the  meaning  of  which  is  unmistakeable.  Here  for  ex- 
ample: Grimstad  was  a  prohibition  town  down  to 
1900.  Then  it  lapsed.  The  number  of  arrests  the  last 
year  under  prohibition  was  147 ;  under  the  first  year  of 
the  Samlag  272  and  in  each  year  since  has  been  higher 
than  in  any  prohibition  year  in  spite  of  the  fact  that 
the  Hasseldalen  Ship  Building  Company  has  closed  its 
works  and  taicen  from  the  town  a  considerable  drink- 
ing population. 

Of  four  little  towns  on  the  South  coast  of  Norway, 
Lillesand  and  Mandal  adopted  prohibition ;  Grimstad 
and  Ekersund  established  Samlag  shops.  The  com- 
bined population  of  the  last  two  is  slightly  in  excess  of 
the  first  two, — 6,252  against  5,275.  But  their  superi- 
ority in  drunkenness  is  not  in  the  least  slight.  The 
figures  of  arrest  are,  for  the  two  prohibition  towns,  34 ; 
for  the  Samlag  towns,  341,  a  tenfold  multiplication. 

During  the  local  option  contest  in  Larvik  in  1908 

(^T  Braendevins  Samlagene  og  Forbruket  av  Braend- 
vine  Vin  og  51  i  1907,  p.  21-22. 


io6  THE  GOTHENBURG  SYSTEM 

the  citizens  of  Sandefjord  which  had  driven  out  the 
Samlag  sent  the  following  statement  to  encourage  the 
people  of  Larvik  to  follow  their  example.  It  reads  not 
unlike  documents  of  loc-al  option  contests  in  Ohio, 
1909: 

"The  undersigned  with  a  full  sense  of  responsi- 
bility wish  to  state  that  conditions  in  Sandefjord  have 
decidedly  improved  since  the  Company  drink-shop 
was  suppressed  in  1908.  This  is  clearly  indicated  by 
the  fact  that  arrests  in  the  last  year  of  the  drink  regime 
were  288;  in  the  present  year  of  prohibition  (1906) 
only  137. 

"With  regard  to  prohibition's  effect  on  trade,  it  is 
admitted  on  all  sides  that  conditions  are  better  and 
that  sales  are  distinctly  greater  than  before.  This  is 
proved  for  example  by  the  fact  that  the  amount  of  im- 
ported articles  sold  in  the  last  decade  has  increased, 
according  to  custom-house  statistics,  300  per  cent  and 
that  the  working  capital  of  the  city  banks  has  in  the 
same  time  more  than  trebled. 

"A  large  number  of  those  who  at  the  last  election 
were  most  zealous  defenders  of  the  Samlag  now  assert 
that  if  the  question  should  be  brought  up  again  they 
would  be  found  on  the  side  of  the  present  prohibitory 
regime. 

(Signed).     Andreas  Hasle, 
L.  Sorenson. 

Sandefjord." 

In  1907  there  was  a  great  lockout  in  the  Borre- 
gaard  cellulose  industry  at  Sarpsborg.    During  the  37 


THE  GOTHENBURG  SYSTEM  107 

days  of  the  lockout  1,800  men  were  idle.  Fortunately 
when  the  works  were  closed  down,  the  drink-shop^''^ 
operated  by  the  Borregaard  Company  was  at  the  same 
time  shut.  During  these  37  days  when  the  operatives 
were  out  on  the  street  with  all  their  time  at  their  dis- 
posal public  order  was  according  to  the  daily  press 
beyond  criticism.  Only  14  arrests  for  drunkenness 
occurred.  If  the  average  had  been  up  to  that  prevail- 
ing for  the  five  preceding  months  when  the  men  were 
employed  and  when  the  drink  shop  was  open,  the 
number  would  have  been  87,  or  six  times  as  many. 
This  is  about  the  measure  of  the  superiority  of  prohi- 
bition over  restriction  and  regulation. 

The  statistics  for  prohibition  Sunday  in  Sarpsborg 
compared  with  open  week  days  (January  to  July,  1907) 
were  as  follows: 

Sundays  2  arrests,  Saturdays  97  arrests,  Fridays 
56  arrests,  Mondays  65  arrests.  Can  one  doubt  for  an 
instant  but  that  if  the  drink-shop  were  open  on  Sun- 
day, the  single  free  day  of  the  week,  the  arrests  would 
have  mounted  up  to  at  least  that  of  the  most  temperate 
week  and  work  day,  Tuesday  with  its  41  arrests,  i.  e. 
have  increased  twentyfold?<^^) 

(O  Not  indeed  under  Samlag  control  but  managed  on 
the  same  plan  as  to  time  of  closing,  regulations  concerning 
sale  to  minors,  the  drunken,  etc.  It  cannot  be  supplanted  by 
a  Samlag  because  of  certain  inherited  privileges.  The  com- 
pany controlling  it  is  one  of  the  largest  and  most  responsible 
in  Norway. 

(2)  Scharffenberg,  "Afholdspolitiske  Sporgsmaal,"  III 
p.  116. 


io8  THE  GOTHENBURG  SYSTEM 

Every  year  there  is  a  winter  market  lasting  some 
days  at  Kongsvinger,  a  town  near  the  Swedish 
frontier.  In  this  town  is  a  Samlag  whose  shop  has  up 
to  the  present  run  full  blast  on  fair  days.  The  writer 
noticed  in  the  newspapers,  accounts  of  the  shameful 
state  of  things  in  the  week  of  1908.  Ladies  were  afraid 
to  go  on  the  street  after  sundown  because  of  the 
drunken  rowdyism.  A  visitor  narrated  that  his  coach- 
man when  driving  through  the  crowd  on  the  main 
street  was  obliged  to  push  aside  drunken  men  in  order 
to  prevent  his  horse  running  over  them.  In  1909  the 
drinkshop  was  closed  in  the  fair  season  and  an  im- 
provement was  immediately  noticeable.  "The  market 
of  the  present  year  showed  no  falling  ofif  in  attendance 
as  some  feared,"  writes  one.  "Indeed  there  were  ex- 
ceptionally large  crowds  present.  Yet  there  was 
hardly  a  drunken  man  to  be  seen."  The  police  report 
corroborates  this  fact.     Here  is  the  statistic: 

Arrests  for  drunkenness  during  fair  days  at 
Kongsvinger : 

1905 — 34  arrests. 

1906 — 30  arrests. 

1907 — 54  arrests. 

1908 — 33  arrests. 

1909 —  7  arrests  under  temporary  prohibition. 

In  other  words  prohibition  has  done  away  here 
with  four-fifths  of  the  drunkenness  which  the  Svstem 
has  to  its  credit. 

In  December  last  there  occurred  a  frightful 
murder  in  the  Vestfjorddal.     It  now  transpires  that 


THE  GOTHENBURG  SYSTEM  109 

the  murderer  had  prepared  for  action  by  purchasing 
spirits  from  the  Kongsberg  model  drink-shop.  When, 
to  quote  Keats,  "the  wine  had  done  its  rosy  deed,"  the 
wiseacres  of  the  government,  past-masters  in  the  be- 
lated shutting  of  stable-doors  as  the  governing  class 
elsewhere,  thought  it  well  to  investigate  this  drink- 
shop.  It  found  that  the  alcohol  was  procured  by  post 
and  drunk  both  by  murderer  and  victim  and  also  that 
this  same  shop  had  sent  out  by  mail  during  the  year  the 
weight  of  1,068  kilograms  (about  2,100  pounds) ! 
Over  a  ton  of  poison  and  glass  distributed  through  the 
mail  by  this  regulated  drink  shop  in  violation  of  the 
spirit  if  not  of  the  letter  of  the  law.  The  department 
in  Christiania  now  threatens  to  annul  the  license  of 
the  Kongsberg  Samlag. 

The  respect  for  law  and  the  means  for  enforcing 
law  undoubtedly  stand  higher  in  Scandinavia  than  in 
American  cities.  If  such  scandals  occur  in  Norway 
worse  ones  would  occur  in  New  York  and  Chicago  and 
have  occurred  in  South  Carolina  under  a  system 
similar  to  that  prevailing  in. Norway. 

In  Sweden  there  is  as  yet  no  local-option  legisla- 
tion though  the  lower  house  of  the  Riksdag  voted  for 
such  in  1908.  But  in  certain  towns  the  authorities 
have  without  popular  mandate  refused  to  permit  the 
model  drinking  places  to  continue  their  pernicious 
work.  Then  comes  a  change  for  the  better.  We  get 
this  for  example  from  Elmhult  in  Smaland,  not  far 
from  the  place  where  stood  the  country  parsonage  in 


no  THE  GOTHENBURG  SYSTEM 

which  the  great  botanist  Linnaeus  was  born.  The 
reporter  is  Dr.  med.  Soderberg: 

"Between  Oct.  i,  1904,  and  Nov.  I,  1907, — 37 
months — there  were  in  Elmhult  not  less  than  eight 
cases  of  suicide,  murder  and  fatal  accident,  all  of  which 
were  more  or  less  directly  traceable  to  spirits  from  the 
Gothenburg  shop.  From  Nov.  i,  1907,  when  the  sale 
ceased  there  was  in  the  185^  months  to  the  time  of 
the  publication  of  this  report  not  a  single  case  of 
death  from  this  cause." 

When  the  shop  is  closed  in  one  town  many  of  the 
drinkers  for  the  first  few  months  send  off  to  neighbor- 
ing places  after  brandy.  The  result  is  of  course  in- 
creased profits  for  the  "open  shop"  town.  The  anti- 
prohibitionist  sages  of  the  press  make  much  of 
this.  Skeninge  in  Ostergotland  for  example  has 
profited  to  the  extent  of  18,000  kroner  in  the  past  year 
by  the  action  of  its  neighbor  Mjolby  in  closing  its 
drink-shop.  "If  this  continues,"  remark  these  smug 
money-moralizers,  "Skeninge's  finances  will  soon  be 
on  an  enviably  secure  basis." 

At  the  same  time  a  similar  case  occurring  in  Dar- 
lecarlia  is  adduced.  Hedemora  is  "in  the  butter"  be- 
cause of  the  folly  of  Saeter  whose  town-council  has 
closed  the  local  drink-shop. 

But  the  coin  has  its  reverse  side.  The  "Ostergot- 
land Correspondent,"  no  friend  of  temperance  either, 
pictures  it.  It  is  not  so  pleasant  as  that  of  smiling 
Plenty  with  18,000  silver  kroner  running  out  of  her 
cornucopia. 


THE  GOTHENBURG  SYSTEM  in 

"A  sigh  of  relief  escaped  all  classes  of  society 
when  the  last  market  man  packed  into  the  train.  For 
this  time  the  crowd  has  been  both  mixed  and  decidedly 
unpleasant.  For  example  a  woman  was  seen  reso- 
lutely hitting  a  man  on  his  skull  with  a  bottle  so  that 
the  blood  spurted  in  all  directions.  The  fellow  was 
forced  to  jump  and  run.  People  thought  he  had  tried 
to  commit  suicide.  Meanwhile  in  the  drink-shop  the 
carryings-on  baffled  description.  A  circus  employe  in- 
sulted the  wife  of  the  man  who  ran  the  place  and  then 
choked  'mine  host'  until  he  was  blue-black  in  the  face. 
Everybody  says  that  drunkenness,  rowdiness,  and 
roughness  took  during  this  fair  week  dimensions  ex- 
ceeding those  in  any  one's  memory,  at  least  for  de- 
cades.   There  was  no  lack  of  drink  on  all  sides." 

And  how  has  it  gone  in  prohibition  Saeter? 
"Though  the  temperance  party  is  in  the  minority  in  the 
town  council,"  writes  a  correspondent,  "yet  none  of 
the  opposite  party  will  propose  a  return  to  the  Sys- 
tem. The  general  opinion  is  that  the  community  is 
better  off  without  the  Gothenburg  shop.  Formerly  it 
was  at  times  dangerous  to  pass  the  streets  because  of 
drunken  men.  In  the  past  year  I  have  not  seen  ten 
intoxicated  in  the  town.  A  customer  of  the  shop  -who 
had  been  in  the  local  jail  nearly  two  hundred  times 
before  prohibition  is  now  a  sober  man.  Many  similar 
cases  can  be  instanced.  Before  prohibition  one  heard 
of  purchasers  of  drink  hanging  themselves,  shooting 
themselves,  freezing  to  death.  Now  there  is  nothing 
of  the  sort.    The  stream  of  tramps  has  dried  up  en- 


112  THE  GOTHENBURG  SYSTEM 

tirely.  They  go  direct  now  between  Falun  and  Hede- 
mora  past  Skedvi.  Crime  decreases  and  the  jail  is 
rarely  used." 

"There  is  only  one  thing  certain  in  life,"  said 
Stevenson,  "and  that  is  failure."  But  failure  is  a  rela- 
tive term.  Stevenson's  "failure"  was  indeed  worthy 
of  the  laurel  leaf.  The  "failure  of  prohibition"  is  a  tri- 
umph of  the  first  magnitude  besides  the  best  successes 
of  the  Gothenburg  System.  At  least  that  is  the  honest 
opinion  of  one  who  has  lived  many  years  under  each 
system. 

From  an  absolute  point  of  view  a  law  may  be  said 
to  have  "failed"  because  it  is  violated  when  from  a 
practical  point  of  view  it  is  generally  satisfactory.  And 
after  all  if  it  were  not  violated  there  would  have  been 
no  reason  for  putting  it  on  the  statute  books.  The 
King  of  Korea  ordered  with  an  optimism  which 
smacked  of  opera  bouflfe  the  immediate  abolition  of 
national  vices.  The  impatient  critic  of  prohibition  is 
just  as  unreasonable.  It  takes  much  time  for  a  vice 
to  disappear  which  is  rooted  as  deeply  in  the  past  as 
alcoholism  is.  To  a  level-headed  observer  its  relative 
disappearance  in  northern  New  England  must  be  a 
veritable  marvel.  It  is  not  long  as  a  student  of  history 
reckons  time  since  John  Boyle  was  given  a  license  to 
sell  rum  on  condition  that  his  place  be  set  up  near  the 
Second  church  of  Boston  for  the  parishoners'  con- 
venience or  since  Dr.  Strong,  pastor  of  the  First 
church,  Hartford,  himself  ran  a  distillery.  This 
temper  prevailed  throughout  New  England.     A  study 


THE  GOTHENBURG  SYSTEM  113 

of  the  records  of  the  little  New  Hampshire  mountain 
town  in  which  the  writer  lives  was  made  recently.  The 
pre-prohibition  period  gave  a  dreadful  picture.  More 
than  half  of  the  purchases  at  the  village  store  were  for 
New  England  rum.  Houses  were  in  disrepair  and  un- 
painted;  farms  were  mortgaged  and  the  women  sup- 
ported the  families.  But  under  prohibition  in  25  sum- 
mers the  writer  recalls  seeing  but  one  intoxicated 
person. 

Five  years  ago  the  state  prohibition  law  gave  place 
to  a  less  satisfactory  local  prohibition  law.  Arrests 
for  drunkenness  in  the  state  have  as  a  consequence 
jumped  500  per  cent. 

Under  the  Gothejiburg  System  much  of  the  free 
alcoholism  of  early  New  England  is  still  to  be  seen. 
People  continue  "potent  in  potting."  A  funeral  is  still 
called  "a  gravol,"  "a  grave  beer"  and  a  baptism  "a  bar- 
sol,"  "a  child's  beer"  as  in  the  earlier  days  the  dedica- 
tion of  a  church  in  England  was  called  a  "church-ale." 
One  of  the  speakers  in  the  Stockholm  temperance  con- 
gress of  1902  told  of  a  church  dedication  in  Norway 
for  which  360  bottles  of  wine  and  beer  were  purchased. 
By  evening  all  were  empty.  Some  of  the  participants 
naturally  were  staggering  when  they  went  home.  Mr. 
Isene  mentions  another  church  dedication  in  1904  at 
which  twenty  different  toasts  were  drunk.  ^^^  The 
Swedish  Bishop  Rhode  complains,  and  it  takes  much 
to  make  a  bishop  complain  about  drinking  here  as  else- 

(O     Menneskevennen,  3  March,  oq. 


114  THE  GOTHENBURG  SYSTEM 

where,  that  the  people  in  a  certain  region  (around 
Frillesas)  "use  at  weddings,  funerals,  and  on  all  festi- 
val occasions  altogether  too  much  hard  drink.  On 
market  days,  too,  and  at  auctions  they  get  drunk  with 
their  endless  consumption  of  brandy.  This  is  true,  too, 
of  all  church  festival  times, — Easter,  Christmas,  Pente- 
cost and  the  like."  "It  is  horrible,"  he  continues,  "to 
see  how  this  spirit-drinking  lays  waste  one  home 
after  another.  The  dreadful  consequences  of  alcohol 
poisoning  hang  over  the  whole  nation.  Our  people 
are  being  ruined  in  body  and  soul.  It  breaks  down 
all  their  defences  against  inner  and  outer  dangers."  ^^^ 

Confirmation  time  when  the  young  are  received 
into  the  state  church  is  marked  with  much  social  alco- 
holism. At  a  great  dinner  of  the  northern  schools  in 
Christiania  in  1905  six  hundred  bottles  of  beer  and 
brandy  and  fifteen  hundred  of  caloric  punch  were 
served !  Investigations  in  the  public  schools  of  Stock- 
holm have  brought  to  light  the  fact  that  not  less  than 
70  per  cent  of  the  children  over  twelve  years  are  accus- 
tomed to  drink  beer  in  their  homes.  At  festal  gather- 
ings for  "budeier"  or  dairy  girls,  who  look  after  the 
cows  in  the  high  mountains  in  the  summer  time,  spirits 


(2)  In  his  last  book  Ossian  Nilsson  says:  "Alcoholism 
is  a  marked  trait  of  the  whole  Swedish  people.  It  takes  its 
victims  from  all  classes,  high  and  low,  learned  and  ignorant, 
poor  and  rich.  It  is  the  real  shadow  of  barbarism  which 
threatens  to  stifle  our  civilization." 


THE  GOTHENBURG  SYSTEM  115 

are  dealt  out  as  a  matter  of  course.  And  So  it  goes 
on  all  occasions ! 

Here  is  a  picture  of  what  Anacreon  called  "Scyth- 
ian toping"  from  the  west  of  Norway.  Such  rioting 
is  of  course  not  common  but  it  is  unheard  of  at  least 
in  American  prohibition  districts.  The  clipping  is  cut 
from  "Sondfjord's  Avis,"  a  west  country  paper,  (Aug. 
1907.) 

"On  the  farm  where  the  marriage  took  place  they 
let  loose  the  horses  in  the  cultivated  fields  and  mead- 
ows. One  sensible  man  shut  the  cellar  where  the  beer 
was  to  prevent  further  excesses.  The  door  was  pried 
up  and  lifted  off  its  hinges  and  thrown  down  a  hill. 
The  beer-kegs  were  rolled  after  it  when  they  had  been 
emptied  (not  on  the  ground).  The  host's  supplies  of 
salt  meat  were  grabbed  as  if  by  pirates.  In  one  beer 
barrel  the  contents  of  which  seemed  too  thin  for  the 
doughty  drinkers  flour  was  mixed  and  the  resulting 
paste  cast  about  the  walls  and  ceilings.  The  conduct 
of  the  guests  has  made  the  host  nearly  crazy." 


CHAPTER  X. 
"Ended,  Not  Mended." 

The' boldest  thoughts  of  the  present  are  the  cool  reason 
of  the  future. — Maeterlinck. 

One  of  the  early  popes,  so  the  story  goes,  put  out 
a  great  fire,  (the  Incendio  del  Borgo,)  by  making  the 
sign  of  the  cross.  Something  of  the  same  sort  the 
advocates  of  Gothenburgism  attempt  to  do  with  the 
dreadful  alcoholist  conflagration.  They  try  to  exorcise 
it  with  pretty  devices,  they  use  incantatory  phrases 
such  as  "disinterested  sale,"  or  "pure  liquors."  With 
water  they  will  have  nothing  to  do,  preferring 
to  throw  alcohol  (  in  strictly  limited  quantities)  on  the 
flames.    But  nothing  avails.    The  fire  still  rages. 

And  will  so  long  as  alcohol  is  sold.  This  is  the 
point  on  which  the  System  of  necessity  goes  to  pieces. 
Modern  investigation  has  made  any  compromise  im- 
possible. Alcohol  in  the  smallest  quantities  is  a  dan- 
gerous protoplasmic  poison.  The  best  regulated  shop 
which  can  be  imagined  will  still  be  a  place  for  the 
sale  of  epilepsy,  pneumonia,  cirrhosis,  fatty  degenera- 
tions, and  numberless  other  diseases.  Dr.  Brou- 
ardel's  dictum,  "The  public  house  is  the  purveyor  of 
tuberculosis,"  is  as  true  of  the  drink-shops  of  Stock- 
holm as  of  those  of  Paris.  Indeed  the  more  orderly 
and  better  regulated  the  shop  the  more  dangerous. 
Dr.  Baer  in  his  chapter  on  drunkenness  in  "Die  Deut- 


THE  GOTHENBURG  SYSTEM  117 

sche  Klinik  am  Eingang  des  Zwanzigstes  Jahrhundert" 
says  truly  that  not  poverty  nor  climate  but  imitation 
leads  to  drinking.  If  the  drinking-place  is  repulsive 
normal  men  and  especially  women  are  not  likely  to 
enter  it.  If  it  is  made  cosy  and  refined  there  is  danger 
that  they  will  and  that  they  in  turn  will  be  imitated 
by  others.  • 

The  Gothenburg  System  institutionalises  drink- 
ing and  the  drink  trade.  It  has  its  analogues 
in  the  institutionalising  of  gambling  by  the  Ger- 
man state  lotteries,  in  state  regulated  prostitu- 
tion and  the  like.  Such  a  course  gives  per- 
manency to  the  vice.  It  assures  us  future  genera- 
tions of  alcohol-sick  for,  as  Napoleon  shrewdly  said, 
"Institutions  fix  the  destiny  of  individuals  rather  than 
individuals  of  institutions."  The  Gothenburg  System 
is  an  institution  for  a  nation  of  drinkers.  But  this  is 
what  the  American  people  must  not  be. 

The  Gothenburg  System  has  not  broken  the  power 
of  the  alcohol  capital^^^  and  here  lies  for  Americans 

(O  There  are  places  in  Sweden  where  it  would  be  dif- 
ficult to  find  among  the  official  and  governing  class  a  single 
person  who  is  not  interested  in  some  brewery.  Ministers  of 
state  and  provincial  governors  make  no  bones  of  leading 
meetings  of  brewery  directors.  Men  of  science  are  induced 
to  enter  the  lists  for  the  mighty  beer  interest.  A  well  paid 
staff  of  publicists  trumpet  unceasingly  the  harmlessness  and 
even  value  of  this  drink.  In  fifty  years  the  flood  of  beer  has 
risen  four-fold  from  7  liters  a  head  in  1861  to  29  liters  in  1905. 
O.  Petersson  "Sv.  Rusdryckslagstiftningen  och  Goteborgs- 
Systemet,"  p.  71. 


ii8  THE  GOTHENBURG  SYSTEM 

the  crux  of  the  practical  problem.  The  brewers  and 
distillers  find  the  System  a  reasonably  satisfactory  and 
wholl5^  secure  outlet  for  their  products,  though  they 
would  undoubtedly  prefer  "the  Tartarean  drench"  of 
the  unrestricted  sale  prevailing  in  England.  They  do 
not  fight  the  System,  however;  they  fight  prohibi- 
tion.(^)  ^  The  newspapers  are  their  willing  servitors 
and  those  of  the  Norwegian  Right,  for  instance,  fight 
their  battles  with  a  bitterness  and  unscrupulousness 
which  equals  if  not  surpasses  anything  the  writer 
knows  of. 

The  recent  incident  of  the  wine  treaties  is  an. 
illustration.  The  great  brandy  distillers  of  Bordeaux 
and  Cognac  working  through  the  French  government 
have  forced  in  turn  upon  the  three  Scandinavian 
states  commercial  agreements  reducing  the  tariffs  on 
wines  and  brandies.  The  listing  of  Scandinavian 
state  loans  on  the  Paris  bourse  was  refused  until  these 

(O  Now  and  again  the  underground  workings  of  the 
brewers  come  to  light.  Here  is  an  example.  O.  W.  Fast- 
ing, engineer  and  professor  in  the  technical  school  in  Bergen, 
and  well  known  as  a  speaker  and  writer  asked  permission 
from  the  authorities  to  leave  his  post  in  order  to  make  stud- 
ies on  the  temperance  question  in  Norway.  The  request  was 
granted.  He  started  on  a  lecture  tour  in  which  he  praised  all 
"true  temperance"  work  but  deprecated  the  movement  toward 
prohibition.  After  a  little  it  was  discovered  that  he  was 
highly  paid  by  the  Brewers'  Association  for  services  rendered. 
Worse  than  that  it  also  appeared  that  he  had  had  part  in  il- 
legal drink-selling  in  Bergen.  The  incidents  of  the  anti-al- 
cohol movement  are  essentially  the  same  in  all  countries. 

ScharfFenberg,  "Kampen  mod  Alkoholen  i  Norge"  p.  15. 


THE  GOTHENBURG  SYSTEM  119 

concessions  were  granted  to  French  alcohol  producers. 
But  this  was  not  all.  Secret  clauses  (divulged,  how- 
ever, in  Norway)  were  introduced  into  the  treaties  the 
purpose  of  which  was  to  put  a  period  for  all  time  to 
the  promising  prohibition  movement  in  the  Scandi- 
navian peninsula.  The  Republique,  champion  of 
European  freedom,  at  the  behest  of  the  alcohol  capital 
interferes  in  the  internal  affairs  of  three  smaller  na- 
tions and  attempts  to  strangle  a  movement  of  moral 
emancipation. 

For  this  national  humiliation  certain  elements  in 
Norway  were  in  all  probability  responsible  as  well. 
There  can  be  little  doubt  that  the  alcohol  capital  in  the 
North  cooperated  with  that  of  France  if  it  did  not 
instigate  the  whole  proceeding.  The  Christiania  news- 
papers prepared  the  way  for  the  coup  by  bullying  and 
threatening  the  temperance  party  and  by  frightening 
the  public  with  the  terror  of  an  additional  one-half  per 
cent  on  an  hypothek  loan  of  25  million  kroner  which 
subscription  in  London  rather  than  in  Paris  would 
entail.    Their  tactics  were  successful. ^^^ 

Of  course,  the  Gothenburg  System  was  not  re- 
sponsible for  this.  But  it  has  not  made  impossible  such 
interference  in  legislation  by  the  alcohol  capital.  It 
has  not  emancipated  the  press  from  its  alcohol  servi- 
tude.    Further,  the  moral  sympathy  of  its  directors 

(2)  Astonishing  as  it  may  seem  the  temperance  party  in 
the  Storthing  were  cowed  into  accepting  the  bitter  treaty. 
Only  the  twelve  socialist  members  stood  out  for  Norwegian 
independence  and  the  cause  of  morality.    All  honor  to  theml 


120  THE  GOTHENBURG  SYSTEM 

has  been,  if  there  has  been  no  active  co-operation  in 
this  crisis,  with  the  militant  alcohol  interests. 

Finland  has  had  its  Gothenburg  System  as  well  as 
Norway  and  Sweden.  But  Finland  by  the  nearly 
unanimous  vote  of  its  legislature  repudiated  it  in  favor 
of  a  drastic  national  prohibitory  law.  Such  action  after 
many  years  of  the  System  is  no  recommendation  in  its 
favor.  In  Norway  and  Sweden  the  temperance  party  is 
committed  to  the  same  policy.  In  Sweden,  to  be  sure, 
the  conservative  upper  house  of  the  Riksdag  threw  out 
legislation  passed  by  the  lower  house  which  provided 
for  local  option  terminating  in  national  prohibition  in 
20  years.  But  this  is  merely  a  preliminary  skirmish. 
Iceland  and  the  Faroes  in  reforming  their  excise  sys- 
tem passed  by  the  Gothenburg  plan  and  adopted  pro- 
hibition. Most  significant  of  all  is  it  that  the  national 
commission  appointed  by  the  Danish  Riksdag  to  draft 
the  whole  matter  of  new  alcohol  legislation  for  Den- 
mark should  take  up  an  attitude  of  cold  neutrality 
towards  the  Gothenburg  System,  laying  the  emphasis 
for  reform  on  local  option.  All  over  Scandinavia,  in 
fact,  they  are  preparing  to  disprove  Montesquieu's  say- 
ing that  "Northerners  cannot  get  along  without 
spirits." 

And  yet  there  are  good  folk  in  America  who 
would  have  us  take  up  with  this  thread-bare,  cast-off 
institution.  Standardized  opinion  in  our  richer  Eastern 
universities  generally  favors  it.  Certain  clerics  among 
them  the  rector  of  St.  Paul  at  Three  Taverns  and  the 
clergy  of  the  Church  of  St.  George  and  the  Flagon  are 


THE  GOTHENBURG  SYSTEM  121 

enthusiasts  for  it.  New  York  club  men  who  have 
visited  the  fjords  also  believe  it  to  be  "the  best  solution 
of  the  problem"  as  do  various  delightful  Boston  ladies 
who  have  made  their  studies  of  the  alcohol  question  in 
the  cathedrals  and  picture  galleries  of  Europe.  Then 
there  are  the  representatives  of  the  alcohol  Kismet,, 
fatalists  of  the  saloon,  people  that  protest  that  because 
we  always  have  had  drink-shops  we  must  always  have 
them  and  that  we  should  therefore  have  the  best  type 
obtainable.  These  are  as  Prof.  Forel  intimates,  minds 
caught  in  contemporary  modes  of  thinking  which  can- 
not save  with  great  effort  of  imagination  or  without 
personal  experience  visualise  the  developments  of  the 
future. 

Now  in  the  first  place  with  these  dilettante  re- 
formers as  a  storming  column  would  there  be  any 
hope  of  obtaining  the  Gothenburg  System  against  a 
powerfully  intrenched  alcohol  capital?  Not  a  bit.  It 
would  be  like  expecting  a  triumph  of  Icelandic  arms 
over  Prussian. 

These  excellent  people  who,  one  is  sometimes 
tempted  to  think,  imagine  themselves  the  wise  spoken 
of  in  the  proverb  whose  mission  it  is  to  correct  the 
mistakes  of  the  good,  will  of  themselves  never  be  able 
to  foist  the  System  upon  us.  The  real  danger  is  lest 
they  climb  to  success  on  the  shoulders  of  the  fighting 
prohibitionists  and  in  that  way  retard  or  sterilize  an 
impending  prohibition  victory.  When  state  after  state 
has  adopted  prohibition,  when  federal  interstate  legis- 
lation has  made  possible  its  rigid  enforcement,  when 


122  THE  GOTHENBURG  SYSTEM 

the  congressional  representation  of  prohibition  states 
now  in  the  majority  begins  to  reach  forward  to  com- 
plete and  final  victory,  then  we  are  likely  to  hear  much 
about  the  System.  The  brewers  who  have  opposed  it 
hitherto  will  now  look  upon  it  as  the  last  possible 
vaccine  against  the  "dry"  plague.  Side  by  side  with 
them  will  fight  the  mass  of  what  Dr.  Koppe^^^  calls 
"Alkoholophags,"  those  anti-social  epicures  who  refuse 
to  surrender  for  the  common  weal  any  table  pleasure 
however  injurious  to  themselves.  When  to  these  ele- 
ments are  joined  the  numberless  slow  men  who  dislike 
the  quick  and  thorough  methods  of  political  idealism 
the  danger  time  will  have  come  for  the  prohibition 
movement.^2^  The  Russian  novelist  Garschin  has 
written  a  parable  of  a  palm  in  a  hot  house  which 
strove  to  reach  the  sun  and  grew  passionately  to  that 
end.  Finally  it  touched  the  top  and  broke  through  the 
glass  roof  only  to  freeze  and  die  in  the  raw  air  outside. 

(O  In  his  brilliant  essay  "Das  Alkoholsiechtum  und  die 
Kurzlebikeit  des  modernen  Menschengeschlechts,"  p.  34,  an 
essay  of  almost  sibylHne  power  that  should  be  solemnly  pon- 
dered by  all  who  would  see  the  civilized  races  saved  from 
ruin. 

(2)  At  the  date  of  writing  we  have  an  example  of  this 
danger.  By  the  county  option  law  a  large  part  of  Oregon 
is  cleared  of  drinksellers.  The  prohibitionists  now  are  plan- 
ning to  obtain  a  state  law  by  means  of  the  initiative.  The 
Gothenburg  System  for  Portland  is  offered  as  a  counter  pro- 
posal with  a  guarantee  of  ten  years  undisturbed  existence. 
At  the  end  of  that  time  the  brewers  would  hope  for  a  return 
of  private   or  rather  brewery-mortgaged   sale   again. 


THE  GOTHENBURG  SYSTEM  123 

But  prohibitionists  must  see  to  it  that  their  powerful 
social  reform  does  not  meet  a  similar  fate  in  any  at- 
mosphere of  specious  compromise. 

For  we  are  as  yet  hardly  able  to  realize  how  im- 
mensely weighty  this  great  reform  is.  That  will  come 
only  when  a  couple  of  generations  shall  have  passed 
after  its  triumph  and  its  full  economic  and  hygienic 
effect  shall  have  begun  to  be  visible.  Lecky  remarked 
that  the  habit  of  gin  drinking  which  came  from  the 
Netherlands  with  the  English  soldiery  as  leprosy  'from 
the  East  with  the  Crusaders  was  the  most  momentous 
fact  in  i8th  century  English  history,  —  incomparably 
more  momentous  than  anything  in  the  political  or 
military  annals  of  the  country.  Dr.  Bresler,  the  editor 
of  the  "Internationale  Psychiatrisch  -  neurologische 
Wochenschrift"  gives  the  movement  against  alcohol 
an  equally  significant  place  in  contemporary  history. 
In  his  essay  "Alkohol  auch  in  geringen  Mengen 
Gift"  (p.  6)  he  says.  "After  some  decades  of  toil- 
some investigation  men  of  science,  especially  physiolo- 
gists and  psychologists,  have,  thanks  to  the  exact 
methods  employed,  come  to  the  positive,  irrefutable 
result  that  alcohol  is  under  all  circumstances,  in  small 
as  well  as  in  great  quantities,  a  poison  for  the  body. 
This  knowledge  will  have  for  civilization  an  im- 
portance equal  to  the  discovery  of  micro-organisms, 
indeed  an  incomparably  greater  importance,  since  in 
spite  of  our  knowledge  of  bacteria  we  stand  at  present 
practically  powerless  against  them,  which  is  not  the 
case  with  alcohol  poison.    I  do  not  hesitate  to  put  this 


124  THE  GOTHENBURG  SYSTEM 

revolution  of  opinion  as  to  alcohol  on  a  higher  plane  of 
importance  than  that  which  the  Reformation  occupies 
in  the  minds  of  Protestants." 

The  truth  of  these  words  makes  it  not  only  unwise 
to  stop  at  any  compromise,  but  also  impossible.  The 
war  on  the  Welt-Narkotikum  has  already  attained  a 
momentum  too  great  to  be  halted  at  this  point  by  any 
armistice.  The  idea  of  prohibition  is  in  itself  in- 
trinsically reasonable.  Peoples'  minds  are  beginning  to 
get  accustomed  to  it.  There  is  a  tremendous  power 
of  mass  suggestion  in  the  continuous  statement  of  a 
clear-cut,  radical  principle.  Year  after  year  Mr. 
Villiers  made  in  the  House  of  Commons  his  motion  for 
"Total  and  Immediate  Repeal."  At  first  he  was  ridi- 
culed as  an  impossible  idealist,  then  bitterly  fought. 
At  last  however  reluctant  opponents  turned  to  advo- 
cates and  champions.  The  battle  against  license  laws 
which  prohibitionists  have  fought  so  unwaveringly  will 
end  like  that  against  the  corn-laws.  Already  there  are 
many  signs  that  **the  might,"  to  use  Boerne's  phrase, 
"is  being  mobilized  behind  the  right."  The  action  of 
American  railroads,  the  weight  of  business  interests, 
the  moral  enthusiasm  of  the  Christian  church,  the 
proofs  of  European  scientific  research,  the  sympathies 
of  social  democracy — all  these  are  being  thrown  in  the 
scale  for  prohibition.  Even  the  politicians  are  be- 
ginning to  line  up  with  us.  Hitherto  they  have  been  in 
America  mortally  afraid  of  oflFending  the  politico-alco- 
hol interest.  They  have  acted  for  a  generation  as  the 
mandarins  of  Moukden  who  shifted  the   railway   for 


THE  GOTHENBURG  SYSTEM  125 

fear  lest  the  sleeper  spikes  should  strike  into  the 
vertebrae  of  the  underground  dragon  which  encircles 
the  city.  Now  they  are  waking  up  to  the  fact  that  the 
alcohol  dragon  is  less  to  be  feared  than  the  resolute 
multitudes  that  are  out  after  its  hide.  This  marks  the 
beginning  of  the  end. 

A  gifted  student^^^  of  history  writing  of  America's 
role  in  the  modern  world  has  said: 

"In  the  eighteenth  century  the  fundamental  new 
beginnings  the  race  had  made  on  the  other  side  of  the 
Atlantic  had  an  incalculable  effect  on  the  thought  of 
Europe.  When  the  incubus  of  ancient  institutions, 
feudal  monarchies,  hereditary  privileges,  and  a  perse- 
cuting church,  seemed  intolerable  it  was  perhaps 
mainly  the  spectacle  of  America  that  encouraged 
Europeans."^'^ 

The  great  growth  of  American  wealth  and  its  con- 
centration in  the  hands  of  the  unscrupulous  and 
frivolous  have  put  us  for  the  time  being  out  of  the 
place  of  leadership.  But  a  new  opportunity  is  on  us. 
While  France  is  not  only  herself  heading  straight  to 
the  pit  of  absinthe,  but  using  her  politico  -  financial 
power  to  bind  the  Scandinavian  states  in  the  chain  of 
alcoholism,  while  England  stands  helpless  before  an 
impassable  wall, — malt-lords,  land-lords  and  "lords 
spiritous"  having  thrown  out  with  scorn  the  bill  of 
1908,  while  Russia  is  saturated,  Germany  saturated, 
Belgium  supersaturated,  we  in  America  stand  face  to 

(O     Prof.  J.  R.  Seelye,  "Growth  of  British  Policy." 


126  THE  GOTHENBURG  SYSTEM 

face  with  an  opportunity  which  ought  to  put  us  in  the 
forefront  of  moral  civilization  and  with  it  of  natiofial 
power.  In  1910  it  really  looks  as  if  the  people  had 
the  poison  capital  in  a  corner  and  a  clutch  on  its 
throat.  Certainly  nothing  would  hearten  the  brave 
anti-alcohol  party  in  Europe  more  than  a  complete 
'triumph  of  their  ideas  in  America.  And  that  lies 
within  the  range  of  possibility. 

At  this  favorable  conjuncture  prohibition  would  be 
far  more  easily  obtained  than  any  wide  application  of 
compromise  plans  such  as  the  Gothenburg  System  rep- 
resents. Its  advocates  have  but  to  strike  at  the  manu- 
facture through  the  national  congress  to  paralyze  the 
whole  business.  The  sale,  illegal  as  well  as  legal, 
would  then  dry  up  of  itself.    Here  are  the  steps: 

1st.  Combined  with  the  widest  application  of  the 
local  option  principle  a  national  control  of  the  manu- 
facture preliminary  to  its  extinction.  This  to  consist 
of  two  features : 

a.  Federal  excise  officials  to  keep  accurate  records 
of  all  shipments.  If  any  are  made  to  prohibitory  areas, 
directly  or  indirectly,  the  brewery  or  distillery  to  lose 
its  right  of  manufacture. 

b.  Interstate  use  of  the  railroads  refused  to  the 
manufacturers  of  alcoholic  beverages.  Each^  state  to 
manufacture  its  own  poison. 

This  would  make  local  option  and  state  prohibition 
automatically  self-enforcing  and  would  lead  later  to 

2.  A  national  law  prohibiting  the  manufacture  and 
sale. 


THE  GOTHENBURG  SYSTEM  127 

Lastly  to  make  any  ideal  reform  effective  a  better 
type  of  executive  is  required  in  our  municipalities. 
The  condition  precedent  to  this  is  an  electorate  en- 
larged in  one  direction,  purged  in  another.  Womens' 
political  emancipation  will  have  an  immediate  moraliz- 
ing effect  on  the  political  life  of  the.nation.  Side  by 
side  with  this  should  go  a  disenfranchisement  of  the 
criminal  classes.  On  the  European  continent  the  gen- 
eral practice  in  passing  judgment  on  a  criminal  is  to 
fine  or  imprison  with  the  temporary  loss  of  civil  rights. 
The  introduction  of  this  practice  into  the  United 
States  would  give  a  tremendous  uplift  to  all  strivings 
for  social  improvement  and  political  honesty.  We 
would  suggest: 

1.  That  all  who  are  convicted  of  buying  or  selling 
votes  lose  the  right  of  voting  permanently. 

2.  That  all  convicted  of  criminal  offenses  lose  the 
suffrage  temporarily — for  five  or  eight  or  ten  years, 
according  to  the  gravity  of  the  offense. 

3.  That  as  long  as  licenses  are  given  for  selling 
drink,  holders  of  such  licenses  should  besides  paying 
the  usual  license  fees  lose  civil  rights  until  the  license 
lapses.  This  would  make  the  seller  more  than  ever  a 
pariah  and  cut  out  his  malign  influence  from  our  po- 
litical life. 

Such  legislation  would  not  be  difficult  to  obtain  in 
those  states  which  have  the  initiative  and  referendum. 
It  would  not  be  impossible  to  obtain  in  very  many 
other  states.  Its  effect  would  be  twofold, — first  to  re- 
move the  entire  criminal  and  drinkselling  class  from 


128  THE  GOTHENBURG  SYSTEM 

political  life;  secondly  to  stiffen  immensely  the  po- 
litical independence  and  to  improve  the  moral  quality 
of  our  local  administrators.  And  this  it  is  which  is 
chiefly  needed  to  make  prohibition  a  complete  success. 

By  working  along  some  such  lines  the  American 
people  will  be  able  to  light  a  beacon  for  the  alcohol- 
sick  nations.  But  to  attempt  to  set  it  ablaze  with  the 
System  would  be  like  trying,  in  Walpole's  words,  "to 
light  a  fire  with  a  wet  dish-clout."* 

********** 

I  am  writing  these  concluding  sentences  in  one  of 
the  high  valleys  of  Norway  with  a  noble  landscape  all 
about.  It  has  been  raining  heavily  for  several  hours, 
but  the  clouds  have  now  lifted.  I  noticed  some  minutes 
ago  a  black  spot  on  the  green  hill-side  a  half-mile 
away  and  asked  a  servant  what  it  was. 

"A  man,  apparently,"  came  the  reply. 

"What!  and  lying  out  in  this  drenching  rain?" 

"Yes,  he  came  up  from  Lillehammer  (where  the 
nearest  Samlag  is  located),  stumbled  off  the  train  and 
has  been  flat  on  his  face  ever  since." 

How  many  such  block  blotches  has  this  particular 
Samlag  cast  out  today,  I  wonder? 

I  pick  up  a  Christiania  daily  for  relief.  The  first 
thing  that  attracts  my  attention  is  an  account  of  a 
drunken  woman's  arrest.  "It  took  two  policemen  to 
handle  her"  wrote  the  reporter.  "She  had  in  her  arms 
a  child  wholly  naked." 

*    The  rapid  extension  of  the  initiative  and  referendum 
will   put   a   weapon    of   incomparable    effectiveness    into    the 


THE  GOTHENBURG  SYSTEM  129 

hands  of  American  anti-alcoholists.  But  it  must  be  used  with 
more  regard  to  strategic  considerations  than  in  the  ill-fated 
'all  or  nothing'  Missouri  campaign  of  1910. 

The  great  difficulty  of  making  the  transition  from  local 
option  to  state  prohibition  in  three-fourths  of  the  states  of 
the  Union  is  the  presence  in  each  of  these  states  of  one  or 
two  large  cities  where  the  law  against  sale  would  probably 
be  to  a  greater  or  less  degree  nullified.  The  strength  of  the 
drink-shop  in  these  centres  rests  in  the  backing  of  the  brew- 
ery which  owns  it  and  which  by  political  and  financial  con- 
nections is  able  to  protect  it  from  the  law  officers. 

In  view  of  this  situation  it  is  a  question  whether  the  at- 
tack should  not  be  made  primarily  on  the  alcohol  capital,  the 
sale  in  the  great  centres  being  for  the  moment  disregarded. 
County  option  in  many  states  has  cleared  the  drink-shop  out 
of  the  country  and  smaller  towns  and  has  given  the  temper- 
ance party  a  hold  on  state  legislatures.  If  to  county  option 
as  to  sale  were  coupled  state  prohibition  of  the  manufacture, 
the  way  would  be  cleared  for  a  successful  treatment  of  the 
saloon  in  the  cities. 

Such  a  plan  should  however  be  a  concerted  one.  We 
would  suggest  the  simultaneous  year-after-year  introduction 
of  prohibition  of  manufacture  laws  into  all  the  legislatures. 
Secondly  the  annual  placing  of  a  prohibition  of  manufacture 
proposal  before  the  people  of  the  referendum  states.  Thous- 
ands of  conservative  temperance  men  who  would  balk  at  the 
idea  of  putting  Louisville  or  St.  Louis  or  Baltimore  or  Bos- 
ton under  a  general  prohibition  law  would  gladly  vote  for  the 
closing  down  of  the  manufacture  in  their  respective  states — 
especially  if  they  knew  it  to  be  part  of  a  concerted  national 
movement  to  this  end.  The  ancient  ungrammatical  argument, 
"prohibition  don't  prohibit,"  would  have  no  cogency  here  for 
the  federal  government  remorselessly  crushes  out  small  illegal 
distilling  and  the  great  brewers  would  never  risk  the  confis- 
cation of  their  plants  by  violating  such  a  law.  This  plan 
carried  on  year  after  year  until  it  had  generally   succeeded 


130  THE  GOTHENBURG  SYSTEM 

would  keep  the  agitation  at  white  heat.  Its  success  in  a 
half  dozen  states  where  the  manufacture  is  largely  concen- 
trated would  paralyze  the  national  drink  interests.  It  is  a 
policy,  too,  on  which  temperance  radicals  who  think  local 
option  "too  local  and  too  optional"  could  join  with  temper- 
ance conservatives  who  look  upon  state  prohibition  of  sale 
as  premature.  The  referendum  would  enable  us  to  keep  at  it 
until  we  won. 

In  view  of  the  strong  pro-prohibition  decisions  of  the 
supreme  court  it  is  doubtful  if  any  objection  to  this  policy 
of  prohibition  by  piecemeal  would  be  raised  in  the  courts. 
The  brewers  have  declared  with  characteristic  impudence 
in  their  official  organ  that  they  "will  sell  beer  wherever  the 
profits  are  greater  than  the  risks"  and  have  boasted  again 
and  again  that  they  have  broken  down  local  option  laws. 
Their  suppression  therefore  could  be  defended  before  the 
courts  as  a  necessary  law  enforcement  measure.  It  should 
not  to  be  forgotten,  either,  in  this  connection  that  the  modern 
alcohol  investigation  has  deprived  the  brewery  of  its  single 
possible  justification  as  supplying  a  legitimate  demand  for 
limited  use.  The  old  'moderation'  argument  is  knocked  in  the 
head  for  ever.  The  brewery  consequently  stands  naked  and 
bare  as  an  unmitigated  nuisance.  Court  decisions  taking  this 
fact  into  consideration  can  hardly  be  more  lenient  than  in  the 
past. 


APPENDIX. 

Prohibition  During  the  Swedish  General  Strike  of  igog. 

October  i,  1909. 
The  death  warrant  for  the  Gothenburg  System  is 
out  at  last.  "Since  the  abolition  of  home  distilleries  in 
1855,"  says  "Verdandisten,"  "no  event  in  the  Swedish 
temperance  movement  has  been  so  important  as  the 
five  weeks  of  prohibition  during  the  general  strike  of 

1909" 

The  French  make  a  distinction  between  "reforms" 
and  "reformettes."  If  the  Gothenburg  System  is  not  a 
positively  evil  thing  as  the  writer  believes  it  to  be,  the 
best  that  can  be  said  of  it  is  that  it  belongs  in  the  latter 
category. 

But  prohibition  is  a  reform  of  the  first  magnitude, 
of  the  profoundest  beneficence,  and  no  more  cogent  evi- 
dence of  the  fact  has  ever  accumulated  than  that  which 
the  weeks  of  the  Swedish  strike  have  given  the  world. 

The  saloon  is  usually  the  best  strike-breaker.  It 
reduces  the  strikers'  resources  and  discredits  his 
cause  with  riot  and  disorder.  It  was  therefore  a  sur- 
prise to  many  that  the  Swedish  government  should 
have  taken  the  precaution  to  close  the  drink  shops 
when  the  general  strike  broke  out.  The  probable  ex- 
planation lies  in  the  fact  that  distinctly  anarchistic 
elements  smoulder  in  the  left  wing  of  the   Swedish 


132  THE  GOTHENBURG  SYSTEM 

socialist  party.  The  dynamite  at  Malmo,  the  agita- 
tion of  Hinke  Bergegren,  above  all  the  recent  assas- 
sination of  Gen.  Beckmann  in  Kungstragarden, 
warned  "the  upper  classes"  that  it  were  best  for  the 
time  being  to  dispense  with  alcohol. 

"As  long  as  only  the  women  and  children  of 
drunkards  were  hammered,"  remarked  a  laborer, 
"they  shrugged  their  shoulders.  When  their  own 
hides  were  threatened  the  drinkshops  quickly  closed." 

The  results  were  immediate.  Drunkenness  dis- 
appeared as  by  magic.  The  Swedish  papers  read  like 
a  supplementary  chapter  in  "Looking  Backward." 
"It  seems  incredible,"  writes  the  "Karlstad  Tidning" 
— "almost  unreal!  For  eight  days  the  jail  has  stood 
empty.  It  is  as  if  one  had  moved  to  a  Karlstad  of 
later  centuries  when  the  fancies  of  the  temperance 
party  had  at  last  realized  themselves."  "An  intoxicat- 
ed person,"  says  Soderhamns  Tidning,"  "appeared 
Friday  on  the  streets.  The  unusual  sight  occasioned 
general  remark  and  he  was  stared  at  as  if  he  were  a 
strange  animal.  The  man  himself  appeared  embar- 
rassed at  the  general  attention  he  received."  And 
"Svenska  Dagbladet,"  Sweden's  premier  newspaper, 
in  the  same  vein  under  the  caption,  "A  Strange  Oc-. 
currence,"  says:  "At  the  Katrina  (Stockholm)  sta- 
tion a  man  was  brought  in  drunk.  He  is  the  second 
since  prohibition  went  into  effect  three  weeks  before." 

Dr.  Ivan  Bratt  writing  in  "Dagens  Nyheter" 
(neither  writer  nor  paper  are  prohibitionist)  says : 
"When   one   goes  through   the   streets   of   Stockholm 


THE  GOTHENBURG  SYSTEM  133 

one  would  think  one  in  another  country.  Our  infalli- 
ble national  symbols,  unsteady  gait  and  resounding 
oaths,  are  no  longer  perceived.  The  police  have  noth- 
ing to  do  and  the  court  average  of  fifty  drunks  a  day 
has  sunk  to  just  one!  One  knows  oneself  no  longer! 
One  asks.  Can  it  go  on  so?  These  two  weeks  have 
brought  much  water  to  the  prohibitionist  mill." 

After  two  days  of  prohibition  "Goteborgs 
"Handels-Tidning,"  the  great  paper  of  west  Sweden, 
remarked :  ''The  most  striking  thing  thus  far  has  been 
the  complete  absence  of  drunkenness.  The  contrast  in 
Jarntorget  (in  Gothenburg)  before  and  after  the  en- 
actment of  prohibition  has  been  unmistakeable.  Satur- 
day, Sunday  and  Monday  evenings  the  section  swarm- 
ed with  people  in  a  greater  or  less  degree  intoxicated. 
The  day  following  one  looked  in  vain  for  such.  The 
police  gave  the  same  testimony.  In  three  police  dis- 
tricts not  an  arrest  was  made  and  in  the  fourth  but 
one."  "Goteborgs-Posten"  adds,  "Only  ten  drunks 
during  fifteen  days  of  the  strike.  Twenty-five  a  day 
is  a  common  thing  when  the  drinkshops  are  open.  In 
the  Haga  district  instead  of  the  usual  eight  or  ten 
only  one  person  is  in  jail.  The  chief  of  police  says 
that  in  22  years  he  never  experienced  anything  like 
this." 

"Aftonbladet"  (Stockholm)  :  "Thanks  to  prohibi- 
tion only  one  person  last  night  in  the  whole  city  was 
arrested.  Such  a  thing  never  happened  before." 
"Svenska  Morgenbladet :"  "Thousands  are  idle  on 
the  streets,  yet  not  a  single  arrest  for  drunkenness  was 


134  THE  GOTHENBURG  SYSTEM 

made  yesterday."  "Dagbladet:"  "Stockholmers  are 
astonished  to  find  that  punch  and  grog  play  a  less  im- 
portant role  in  their  life  than  they  had  supposed." 
''Dagens  Nyheter:"  "People  sit  quietly  in  the  pool 
rooms  drinking  coflfee  and  lemonade.  One  can  go  from 
one  end  of  the  city  to  the  other  without  seeing  a  sign 
of  an  intoxicated  person.  At  Jakob  (parish)  police- 
station  no  arrests;  Maria,  none;  Johannes,  none; 
Kungsholm,  only  one ;  Katrina,  one.  Such  model  con- 
duct the  police  of  the  last  named  parish  hardly  ever 
saw.  One  realizes  that  under  such  a  system  the 
Swedish  people  can  really  be  admirable  and  not  ill- 
tempered  as  so  often." 

From  the  provincial  cities  came  the  same  story. 
''Norrkopings-Tidning"  writes:  **Near  the  post-office 
was  a  solitary  policeman.  When  we  accosted  him  he 
seemed  like  one  awakened  out  of  a  stupor  of  astonish- 
ment at  the  admirable  conduct  of  people.  'That  is  be- 
cause they  can  get  no  alcohol.  See  how  quiet  it  is. 
Usually  in  the  evenings  one  constantly  sees  men  in  a 
more  or  less  advanced  stage  of  intoxication  collected 
on  the  street  corners,  swearing  and  quarreling  and 
fighting.  Now  we  have  nothing  to  do  and  since  Tues- 
day the  jail  has  been  empty.  One  could  wish  the 
strike  could  go  on  forever.  At  least  one  can  realize 
the  blessings  of  prohibition.  It  ought  to  be  perma- 
nent. The  community  would  then  be  spared  trouble, 
misery  and  poverty.' " 

"Nerikes  Tidning:"  "From  July  30  to  August  26, 
about  one   month,   only   nine   persons   have  been   ar- 


THE  GOTHENBURG  SYSTEM  135 

rested  in  Orebro,  none  of  them  for  drunkenness.  In 
the  same  period  1908,  92  persons  were  arrested,  of 
whom  80  were  for  drunkenness.  Between  the  2nd 
and  29th  of  July,  the  month  preceding  prohibition,  100 
arrests  were  made,  84  of  which  were  for  drunkenness. 
What  do  these  figures  say?  They  cry  out  *away  with 
drink.' " 

"Eskilstuna  Kuriren:"  "Thanks  to  prohibition 
not  a  single  arrest  for  drunkenness  has  taken  place  in 
the  city  (Eskiltuna  is  a  steel  manufacturing  center.) 
The  jail  is  empty  save  for  two  tramps  who  had  no 
place  to  lodge." 

**Arboga  Tidning:"  "Only  one  intoxicated  person 
has  been  seen  since  the  strike  began."  "In  five  weeks," 
comes  the  report  from  Hudviksvall,  "only  one  person 
before  the  court  for  drunkenness.  Usually  we  have 
very  many  every  Monday  morning." 

But  there  was  further  a  sympathetic  fall  in  ar- 
rests for  other  crimes.*    The  Solleftea  police  report  for 

*Dr.  Blocher  of  Basel,  who  was  on  the  ground  at  the 
time,  calls  attention  to  this  parallel  decline  in  general  crim- 
inality. The  whole  number  of  crimes  registered  in  the  Stock- 
holm police  court  in  August  1908  (drunkenness  being  excluded 
from  consideration)  was  530;  in  August  1909,  268.  Of  thefts 
412  and  196  respectively.  Increased  security  of  property  in 
spite  of  increased  insecurity  in  social  conditions  and  in  spite 
of  rising  economic  need. 

Internat.  Monatschrift  zur  Erforschung  des  Alkoholis- 
mus.     Dec.  1909,  pp.  454-456. 

The  prohibition  days  of  the  Finnish  general  strike  in 
1905  were  marked  by  the  same  absence  of  crime.    Dr.  Helenius 


136  THE  GOTHENBURG  SYSTEM 

August  recorded  not  an  arrest  for  ordinary  crime,  but 
three  for  violation  of  prohibition.  The  preceding 
month  there  were  42  arrests  for  drunkenness  and  20 
for  other  crimes.  August  26,  "National  Kuriren"  re- 
ported that  "the  Gothenburg  police  court  of  the  pre- 
ceding week  had  but  one  case  to  try.  This  was  the 
minimum  record  in  the  court's  history."  Of  the  Stock- 
holm police  court  "Svenska  Morgenbladet"  remarked 
(i6th  August) :  "An  exceptionally  short  session, 
Saturday,  in  the  police  court.  There  were  nine  per- 
sons charged  and  the  court  closed  in  20  minutes.  The 
most  of  these  committed  their  offenses  before  the 
strike  began.  The  usual  number  of  criminals  dealt 
with  runs  up  to  a  hundred." 

In  Norrkoping  the  public  prosecutor  received  on 
the  7th  of  September,  a  pair  of  white  gloves  from  the 

says  of  Helsingfors:  "During  the  whole  strike  week 
there  was  but  one  single  drunk  person  who  had  to  be  lodged 
in  the  police  station.  There  was  not  a  single  case  of  theft, 
not  a  single  fight,  not  a  single  instance  of  coarse  conduct, 
although  the  whole  city  every  night  was  veiled  in  complete 
darkness  and  during  many  nights  and  days  there  was  not  a 
single  policeman  in  service.  And  what  was  more  important, 
in  spite  of  the  restlessness  and  discord  between  the  parties 
not  a  drop  of  blood  was  shed  during  the  whole  strike.  The 
result  of  this  experience  was  an  almost  unanimous  adoption 
of  a  prohibition  law  in  1907.  When  the  news  of  its  passage 
came  a  general  illumination  took  place  throughout  the 
country.  In  many  places  schools  were  closed,  thanksgiving 
services  were  held  in  the  churches  and  popular  festivals  in- 
stituted everywhere." 

Internat.  Monatschrift,  April,  1910,  p.  106. 


THE  GOTHENBURG  SYSTEM  137 

judge  (a  symbol  of  a  clean  court).  Not  a  case  was  re- 
ported, a  thing  which  had  not  happened  for  twenty-eight 
years.  And  from  the  newspaper  of  little  Sigtuna  we 
get  this :— "It  has  been  so  calm  and  peaceful  here  since 
Swedish  potato  water  (i.  e.  spirits)  was  put  under  lock 
and  key  that  one  could  think  Sigtuna  a  garden  of  the 
Lord." 

The  temperance  paper  "National  Kuriren"  of 
Gothenburg  is  wont  to  publish  weekly,  a  column  in 
which  are  collected  the  week's  crimes,  accidents,  deaths 
and  the  like  to  the  credit  of  the  Gothenburg  System 
drinkshops.  It  is  a  striking  fact  that  during  the  five 
weeks  of  prohibition  this  column  disappeared  altogeth- 
er from  its  accustomed  place.  There  was  simply  no 
material  to  fill  it. 

A  writer  in  "Stockholms  Tidning"  says : — "My  own 
conviction  is  that  prohibition  has  been  the  keeper  of 
the  peace  (it  must  be  always  remembered  that  200,000 
angry  men  were  out  on  strike  in  all  the  Swedish  towns 
and  cities)  in  a  far  greater  degree  than  police  and  mili- 
tary. All  are  delighted  with  it  especially  the  wives  of 
workingmen.  'This  is  the  best  of  all,'  they  say.  'Would 
that  the  drinkshops  never  opened  again.' "  And  in  the 
same  strain  a  reporter  quoted  in  "Verdandisten"  re- 
marked : — "A  wife  of  a  day  laborer  said  to  me  'Such  a 
blessed  strike !  May  it  go  on  forever !  I  have  not  been 
so  happy  since  I  was  married.  I  aways  trembled  when 
my  man  came  home  lest  he  strike  me  or  the  children. 
Now  I  have  no  anxiety ;  whether  he  come  early  or  late 
he  is  always  sober  and  the  kindest  man  in  the  world.* 


138  THE  GOTHENBURG  SYSTEM 

That  was  her  little  temperance  speech  and  who  could 
want  a  better?" 

"The  animals,  too,  if  they  were  not  like  the  women 
without  the  franchise  would  doubtless  vote  'dry'  with 
the  women.  A  correspondent  in  'Nerikes  Tidning' 
writes : — 'We  get  a  very  good  impression  from  the 
people  who  come  driving  back  from  Orebro  on  our 
roads  in  the  evenings  nowadays.  Before  the  strike 
they  drove  furiously,  whipping  their  horses  unmerci- 
fully. Now  the  same  persons  come  at  a  reasonable 
pace  without  torturing  their  horses.  What  has  made 
the  difiference?     Prohibition/" 

Some  of  the  good  things  which  a  longer  period  of 
prohibition  would  undoubtedly  bring  are  suggested  by 
the  two  following  notes. 

"Sundsvalls  Posten"  (Sep.  14)  under  the  heading, 
"Poverty  and  the  Great  Strike,"  remarks :  "The  guard- 
ians of  the  poor  of  this  city  were  astonishingly  little  af- 
fected by  the  strike.  Even  now  after  its  close  the  num- 
ber of  applicants  for  help  is  considerably  less  than  last 
year  when  conditions  were  normal.  It  has  not  been  so 
quiet  at  the  relief  bureau  for  a  long  time.  This  is  chief- 
ly due  to  prohibition.  Money  has  gone  for  food  and 
clothes.  Many  poor  families  in  this  strike  time  have 
clothed  their  children  as  they  were  unable  to  do  when 
their  men  were  working." 

And  this,  which  may  be  merely  coincidental,  is 
nevertheless  interesting.  "The  mortality  in  Stock- 
holm during  the  first  week  of  the  strike  (Aug.  8-I-1) 
has  been  the  lowest  in  the  history  of  the  city — 8.7  per 


THE  GOTHENBURG  SYSTEM  139 

thousand.    The  average  for  the  same  week  in  the  past 
ten  years  has  been  13.4  per  thousand." 

"Sweden  is  the  Eldorado  of  temperance,"  writes 
one.  "The  French  and  English  correspondents  who 
come  here  to  find  'copy'  during  the  great  strike  are  in 
desperation  over  the  universal  quiet.  'How  shall  I  in- 
terest my  dear  Parisians?'  exclaimed  Mons.  Sestedt  of 
the  sensational  'Matin.'  That  this  was  the  fruit  of  prohibi- 
tion a  telegram  in  'Stockholm's  Tidning'  clearly  indi- 
cates. It  was  from  Helsingor  (the  Elsinore  of  Hamlet)  a 
city  in  Denmark  a  short  ferry-ride  from  the  Swedish 
Helsingborg.  "The  city  with  its  open  drink-shops  has  a 
singular  appearance.  Great  numbers  of  drunken  Swedes 
are  to  be  seen,  strikers  who  have  come  over  from  Hels- 
ingborg to  quench  their  thirst.  The  steamer  crossing 
gives  the  same  picture.  The  magistrates  of  the  Swed- 
ish city  have  requested  those  of  the  Danish  city  to 
shut  their  drink-shops  during  the  strike.  " 

The  statistic  of  alcohol  taxes  gives  the  reason  for 
the  sudden  and  extraordinary  social  improvement  in- 
dicated in  the  above  notes.  During  the  month  of  pro- 
hibition the  state's  share  of  the  usual  Bolag  spoil 
shrank  something  like  two  and  a  half  million  kroner. 
The  official  report  of  the  strike  estimates  that  the  en- 
tire saving  to  the  Swedish  people  during  the  prohibi- 
tion weeks  amounted  to  about  twelve  million  kroner. 
For  five  weeks  at  least  the  Swedish  proletariat  escaped 
the  crushing  economic  burden  which  the  System  lays 
on  their  shoulders.* 


140  THE  GOTHENBURG  SYSTEM 

"Our  experience  of  prohibition,"  says  the  "Boras 
Dagblad"  has  proved  once  for  all : 

"That  the  cry  about  substitute  drinks  in  a  prohibi- 
tion community  (denatured  spirits  and  the  like)  is  a 
false  one. 

"That  illicit  sale  under  prohibition  is  a  mere  ba- 
gatelle compared  with  the  legal  sale. 

*  Redogorelse  for  lockouterna  och  storstreiken  i  Sverige 
ar  1909.  Arbetsstatistik.  A,  9.  On  page  223  it  is  remarked 
that  "this  saving  helped  the  strikers  measurably  in  holding 
out  as  long  as  they  did.* 

But  this  is  not  the  only  way  in  which  alcohol  is  revealed 
as  a  potent  weapon  with  which  to  exploit  the  proletariat.  In 
a  well-known  passage  in  "Das  Judenthum  in  Gegenwart  und 
Zukunft"  Eduard  von  Hartmann  remarks  that  "the  checking 
by  legislative  means  of  national  drunkenness  (in  Germany) 
would  enable  our  people  in  a  single  generation  to  compete 
with  the  temperate  Jews.  These  propositions  are  fought  by 
the  Jews  not  because  they  are  eo  ipso  anti-Jewish  but  be- 
cause they  would  limit  the  fields  of  Jewish  parasitism."  We 
have  called  attention  to  the  active  leadership  which  Lord 
Rothschild  has  taken  in  the  fight  against  restrictive  legisla- 
tion in  England.  The  Judeo-capitalist  press  is  constantly 
launching  rumors  of  war  and  embittering  the  nations  against 
each  other.  Armaments  mean  loans;  war  means  the  destruc- 
tion of  capital,  the  rising  of  rates  and  the  tightening  of  the 
control  of  the  international  money  market  in  a  few  hands. 
But  the  mass  consumption  of  alcoholica  acts  as  an  incessant 
and  destructive  war.  One  can  imagine  the  tremendous  cheap- 
ening of  capital  which  would  result  from  a  few  years  of  pro- 
hibition in  the  United  States  not  to  speak  of  the  world  at 
large.  It  is  not  hard  to  understand  therefore  why  there  is  so 
much  solicitude  about  "the  poor  man's  beer"  in  certain 
quarters. 


THE  GOTHENBURG  SYSTEM    .        141 

"That  the  temperance  fanatics  are  right  in  their 
contention  that  drink  causes  practically  all  offences 
against  public  order. 

"That  citizens  almost  without  exception  accept 
loyally  the  prohibition  enactment. 

"That  drunkenness  disappears  so  that  a  reeling 
person  becomes  a  matter  of  remark." 

And  the"Handels-Tidning"of  Gothenburg  (a  paper 
of  the  standing  of  the  "New  York  Tribune")  expresses 
a  wish  "that  the  remarkable  prohibition  experiment 
with  its  admirable  results  in  lowering  crime  to  an  un- 
precedented point,  drunkenness  practically  disappear- 
ing altogether,  be  continued  some  weeks  after  the 
strike  closes.  Its  good  results  have  been  unmistake- 
able.  The  violations  of  law  which  are  generally  pre- 
dicted under  a  prohibitory  regime  have  not  occurred 
to  any  noticeable  extent.  As  was  to  be  foreseen  the 
Swedish  apothecaries  are  of  too  high  a  standing  to  en- 
gage, as  American  druggists  do  in  illegal  sale  and  the 
Swedish  police  government  too  strong  and  too  little 
accessible  to  lawless  influences  to  be  befooled  in  its  ex- 
ecution of  the  law.  It  has  been  now  experimentally 
demonstrated  that  at  least  local  option  prohibition 
could  be  introduced  to  the  great  advantage  of  society." 

Other  papers  express  the  same  opinion.  "Ostgot- 
en"  of  Linkoping  says : — ^^"Now  that  the  great  blessing 
of  prohibition  has  been  proved  it  were  desirable  that 
it  never  be  taken  from  us.  We  no  longer  see  on  the 
streets  poor  creatures  lowered  by  drink  to  beasts.  The 
police  are  saved  trouble,  the  state  needs  no  longer  to 


142  THE  GOTHENBURG  SYSTEM 

support  drunkards  in  prisons  and  these  latter  have 
their  money  in  their  pockets.  How  happy  a  thing  if 
this  could  go  on  forever." 

And  again  (Aug.  2y)  : — "As  a  result  of  experimen- 
tal trial  the  shortest  and  easiest  way  to  the  permanent 
adoption  of  prohibition  must  be  considered  as  an  ex- 
tremely suitable  and  attractive  proposition.  All 
doubts  as  to  its  desirability  are  now  done  away  with 
for  good  and  with  them  the  chief  hinderance  to  the 
realization  of  this  great  idea." 

The  great  change  of  sentiment  in  regard  to  pro- 
hibition has  been  reflected  not  merely  by  the  press. 
The  socialist  temperance  lodges  report  unusually  large 
accessions  as  a  result  of  the  educating  influence  of  the 
prohibition  period.  Great  demonstrations  in  favor  of 
permanent  prohibition  have  taken  place.  We  note 
among  others,  those  in  Ostersund  (2,000  people), 
Skara  (2,500),  Mora  (2,000),  Linkoping  (2,000),  Orebro 
(1,000),  Gavle  (3,000  strikers),  Trelleborg  (1,500), 
Norrkoping  (4,000),  Halmstad  (1,500),  Gothenburg 
(1,500),  Solleftea  (700),  etc.,  etc.  Most  extraordinary 
of  all  is  the  fact  that  the  state  churches  have  been 
opened  to  prohibition  meetings.  The  Swedish  state 
church  has  in  the  past  been  as  little  accessible  to  moral 
movements  as  state  churches  elsewhere.  Yet  meet- 
ings in  demand  of  continued  prohibition  have  been 
held  in  e.  g.  Hernosand  Cathedral,  in  Hedvig  Kyrka  in 
Norrkoping,  in  Kopparbarg,  Hjo,  Karlstad  (cathe- 
dral), in  Askersand  and  the  other  parishes  of  Strang- 
nas,  in  Holm,  Skallerud,  Rising,  etc.,  etc.     In  Lulea 


THE  GOTHENBURG  SYSTEM  143 

prohibition  demonstrations  have  been  held  in  twelve 
parish  churches. 

The  most  significant  of  all  these  prohibition  meet- 
ings, however,  has  been  that  of  25,000  strikers  at 
Hornsbargshdga  (just  out  of  Stockholm)  which  de- 
clared unanimously  for  prohibition.  This  was  no 
piece  of  momentary  enthusiasm.  It  was  preceded  by 
two  sessions  of  the  entire  leadership  of  the  Stockholm 
Trades  Unions  at  which  the  whole  subject  was  care- 
fully considered  from  every  point  of  view. 

The  manifesto  put  forth  was  adopted  later  at  oth- 
er strike  meetings  all  over  Sweden.  It  practically  com- 
mits Swedish  organized  labor  to  prohibition  and  is  a 
veritable  Declaration  of  Independence.  It  reads  in 
part  as  follows: 

"The  immediate,  magnificent  and  to  many  unex- 
pected results  of  this  provisional  and  incomplete  pro- 
hibitory enactment  have  astonished  the  world.  Drunk- 
enness has  ceased  and  with  it  the  accidents  and 
crimes  which  are  a  consequence  of  drunkenness.  The 
drink-seller's  till  which  hitherto  has  been  filled  with 
the  money  of  poor  men  is  empty. 

"Shall  this  attractive  picture  fade  away?  Will 
Swedish  working  people  allow  without  protest  the 
alcohol  capital  again  to  throw  its  octopus  arms  around 
ten  thousands  of  Swedish  fellow  citizens?  Will  they 
consent  that  thousands  of  Swedish  men  and  women 
be  sacrificed  on  the  altar  of  the  Alcohol  Moloch, — 
that  Swedish  working  people  be  plundered  in  the  fu- 
ture as  in  the  past  of  100  million  kroner  yearly,  that 


144  THE  GOTHENBURG  SYSTEM 

society  through  this  legalized  drink  trade  hold  the  pro- 
letariat down  in  ignorance,  poverty,  and  social-polit- 
ical weakness? 

"Or  is  it  not  rather  right  that  just  in  these  days 
when  the  entire  working  class  of  Sweden  stands  in 
battle  line  that  we  declare  we  will  no  longer  tolerate 
a  business  of  which  the  chief  purpose  is  the  ruin  of  the* 
workers.  The  results  of  such  a  declaration  may 
not  be  immediate  legislative  action,  but  a  united  dem- 
onstration on  the  part  of  the  entire  working  class  will 
certainly  reach  all  ears  and  be  effective  in  many  ways. 

"The  Finnish  people,  Iceland,  and  nine  of  the 
United  States  have  already  stamped  the  drink  busi- 
ness as  a  social  enemy.  It  is  now  the  proud  duty  of 
the  Swedish  workmen  to  put  themselves  at  the  head 
of  this  world  emancipating  movement.  In  so  doing 
they  will  at  this  historic  moment  write  one  of  the  nob- 
lest pages  in  Swedish  history  and  will  earn  the  bless- 
ing of  succeeding  generations. 

"Comrades,  let  us  drop  all  unnecessary  discussion. 
Let  us  rally  to  the  great  task  of  our  emancipation.  The 
way  to  this  emancipation  goes  through  drink  prohibi- 
bition,  effective  and  permanent.  Forward  to  this  end 
in  all  parts  of  Sweden." 

Papers  and  people,  trades  unions  and  churches  all 
over  the  land  asked  for  a  continuance  of  the  prohibi- 
tion arrangement  at  least  until  the  depleting  effects  of 
the  economic  struggle  were  in  some  degree  repaired. 

A  delegation  even  besought  the  king  to  use  his 
influence  to  this  end. 


THE  GOTHENBURG  SYSTEM  145 

All  in  vain.  The  friends  of  the  System  in  the  ad- 
ministration, in  "the  trade,"  in  the  circles  of  the  rich 
bourgeoisie  and  aristocracy  hurried  to  open  up  again 
lest  their  profit-bringing,  tax-paying  institution  should 
be  doomed  forever.  But  re-opening  only  added  furth- 
er proof  of  the  enormous  superiority  of  the  Reform 
over  the  Reformette.  It  was  the  end  of  a  good  dream, 
Tinker  Sly  coming  back  to  hard,  gray  reality — this 
return  to  "normal  conditions." 

"Svenska  Morgenbladet,"  the  second  day  after  the 
re-opening  of  the  alcohol  saison  in  Stockholm,  reports : 
"The  cessation  of  prohibition  soon  made  itself  felt. 
The  number  of  arrests  has  jumped  fifteen  fold." 
Gothenburg's  "Handels  Tidning"  gave  the  police  report 
for  Gothenburg  as  follows: 

"August,  1908,  647  arrests  for  drunkenness. 

August,  1909,  113  arrests  for  drunkenness. 

September  1-7,  1909,  3  arrests. 

September  8-19,  1909,  259  arrests." 

"Ornskioldsviks  Allehanda,"  describing  the  situa- 
tion in  its  little  town  during  prohibition  said : — "It  has 
hardly  ever  before  been  so  peaceful  here.  The  mili- 
tary sent  to  keep  order  has  had  nothing  to  do  except 
to  look  after  itself.  The  cause  of  all  this  is  the  new 
prohibition  order.  Not  a  person  in  jail  since  its  adop- 
tion." 

The  same  paper  writing  on  the  day  following  re- 
opening said: — "Within  two  hours  after  prohibition 
ceased  the  Company  shop  had  taken  in  700  kroner  and 
the  jail  opened  for  five  disorderlies." 


146  THE  GOTHENBURG  SYSTEM 

Enkoping  reopens  its  drink-shop.  The  next  day 
three  young  men  are  taken  to  the  empty  jail. 

Ulricehamn:  "All  was  quiet  and  still  during  the 
prohibition  weeks.  Yesterday  the  saloons  re-opened 
and  at  night  there  were  nine  drunks  in  jail." 

In  Lund  the  first  day  of  opening  20  drunks !  The 
police  declared  that  on  this  day  they  had  more  to 
do  than  during  the  five  strike  weeks.  In  Gothenburg 
according  to  "Goteborgs-Posten,"  "the  police  have 
rarely  seen  so  much  drunkenness.  Persons  were  taken 
to  jail  so  drunk  that  on  the  following  day  only  were 
they  able  to  give  their  names."  On  the  single  first 
day  the  System  shops  opened  in  Gothenburg  there 
were  53  drunks!  In  prohibition  August  there  were 
but  113,  most  of  which  were  to  be  set  down  to  the 
first  three  days  when  the  System's  shops  were 
running.  In  Orebro  when  the  drink-shops  were  opened 
up  the  wage-workers  of  the  city  petitioned  the  magis- 
trates not  to  allow  the  System's  agents  to  send  drink 
on  order  into  homes.  The  magistracy  refused !  In 
this  city  according  to  "Nerikes  Tidning^'  there  were  in 
1908,  127  persons  arrested  in  the  weeks  corresponding 
to  the  strike  period  of  1909.  In  the  1909  strike  week 
there  were  but  19  arrests  brought  before  the  court.  On 
the  first  day  of  the  System's  re-opening  eleven  drunks 
were  lodged  in  jail  and  one  case  of  delirium  tremens 
reported. 

The  usual  crop  of  accidents  followed  in  the  wake 
of  the  System's  renewal  of  activity.  "Goteborgs  Post- 
en"  recounts  them.     An  intoxicated  man  tumbles  off 


THE  GOTHENBURG  SYSTEM  147 

Stora-Otterhallen  (a  high  place  in  Gothenburg)  and  is 
found  dead  later.  A  laborer  is  discovered  dead  in  a 
flat  boat  in  Barnhusviken  (cause  alcohol  poisoning). 
A  serious  railway  accident  near  Malmo : — cause,  drunk- 
en engineer,  etc.  * 

But  the  friends  of  the  System  simply  will  not  see 
it.  After  the  strike  was  declared  off  a  meeting  was 
held  of  the  Stockholm  city  council  to  consider  the  need 

*     From  an  interview  with  a  Salvation  Slum  Sister. 

"The  women  of  the  poor  were  delighted.  Men  who  for- 
merly were  wont  to  be  at  home  neither  night  nor  day  and 
when  they  did  come  were  such  a  terror  to  wife  and  children 
that  these  were  forced  to  flee  to  neighbors  were  absolutely 
changed  persons  under  prohibition.  When  they  went  off  with 
their  families  on  excursions  in  the  woods  about  Stockholm  in 
strike  days  the  children  could  hardly  realize  that  these  were 
their  own  fathers." 

When  asked  if  the  reopening  of  the  System's  man-traps 
had  made  itself  felt  in  her  work,  she  replied,  "Yes," — that 
several  cases  of  fathers'  taking  and  selling  children's  clothes 
for  drink  had  come  to  her  ears.  One  woman  for  whom  the 
slum  sister  had  received  a  warm  dress  did  not  dare  to  wear  it 
but  had  had  it  locked  up  in  a  neighbor's  closet.  Her  husband 
had  struck  and  abused  her  in  order  to  get  it  to  sell.  During 
the  strike  much  clothing  had  gone  through  her  hands  for 
strikers'  families.  Since  the  System's  shops  had  reopened 
there  were  many  reports  of  the  pawning  of  these  things  by 
drunken  fathers. 

One  case  mentioned  was  especially  interesting.  A  coun- 
try laborer  having  saved  a  little  money  took  a  trip  to  Stock- 
holm during  the  first  week  of  the  strike  to  "blow  it  in."  But 
when  he  got  to  the  city  he  found  that  the  Gothenburg  shops 
were  all  closed.    At  first  he  hardly  knew  what  to  do.    Then  the 


148  THE  GOTHENBURG  SYSTEM 

of  employing  thirty  new  policemen  (at  a  yearly  cost 
of  16,000  kroner)  within  the  city  limits.  Friherr 
Palmstierna  arose  and  suggested  that  the  cheaper  and 
more  effective  method  for  preserving  order  would  be, 
as  the  past  weeks  had  shown,  to  keep  the  Gothenburg 
System  shops  sealed  tight.  "Instead  of  this  the  city 
govenment  had  let  loose  the  drink-flood  again  and  the 
old  sights  of  reeling  men  and  women  on  the  way  to 
pawnshop,  drink-shop,  prison  and  asylum  met  the 
eye  once  more." 

And  the  directors  of  the  drink  companies  have 
they  learned  anything  from  this  experiment?  Have 
they  made  any  correction  or  improvement  or  innova- 
tion in  their  administration? 

Yes,  they  have  done  one  thing.  The  Stockholm 
management  has  permanently  discharged  the  150  men 
who  went  out  in  the  general  strike  and  has  filled  their 
places  with  women.  I  do  not  know  whether  this  help 
is  cheaper  or  not.  It  usually  is.  It  is  certain  to  be 
more  docile. 

As  to  the  hygienic  and  moral  effects  of  the  atmos- 
phere of  the  poison-shops  on  the  women,  the  directors 
apparently  have  little  or  no  concern. 


idea  struck  him  of  buying  new  clothes  and  a  pair  of  shoes. 
After  this  he  went  to  the  Salvation  Army  restaurant  to  get 
dinner. 

He  told  his  story  and  what  a  new  experience  it  was  to 
have  new  shoes  on  his  feet.  The  like  had  not  happened  for 
years.     He  had  fifteen  kroner  in  his  pocket,  too!" 


THE  GOTHENBURG  SYSTEM  149 

June  1st,  1910. 

"The  present  state  of  things,"  writes  a  leading 
Swedish  physician,  "is  degrading  and  decivilising  our 
people.  The  blood-letting  which  comes  from  the  great 
emigration  takes  our  best  from  us.  But  what  is  that 
besides  the  injury  which  the  blood-poisoning  of  those 
who  remain,  causes?" 

He  may  well  say  it.  Under  the  Gothenburg  Sys- 
tem in  1909  every  tenth  man  in  Stockholm  between 
the  ages  of  18  and  60  was  arrested  for  drunkenness. 
"The  police  generally  have  a  stiff  job  to  keep  order," 
wrote  a  Stockholm  policeman  at  the  end  of  the  August 
days.  "It  is  impossible  to  arrest  all  of  the  intoxicated 
for  we  should  have  no  place  to  lodge  them.  Those  we 
do  take  must  often  be  dragged  station-ward  in  the 
most  repulsive  way  and  in  their  cells  their  action  is 
that  of  beasts.  But  during  the  prohibition  days  of 
August,  1909,  there  were  in  Stockholm  but  sixteen 
arrests  for  drunkenness  as  against  1,545  i^  August, 
1908."  * 

That  single  statistic  has  been  a  clarion  call  to  the 

*  There  were  actually  168  arrests  for  drunkenness  in 
August,  1909  but  152  of  them  fell  on  the  first  three  days  be- 
fore the  drinkshops  were  closed.  The  28  prohibition  days 
registered  but  16.  For  all  Sweden  the  arrests  for  drunken- 
ness in  August  1908  were  5,612;  for  August  1909,  1,244.  But 
if  the  arrests  for  drunkenness  for  the  first  three  days  of  Aug- 
ust throughout  Sweden  were  as  relatively  numerous  as  in 
Stockholm,  and  this  is  probable,  nine-tenths  of  the  arrests 
for  August,  1909  would  have  occurred  on  these  three  drinking 
days. 


150  THE  GOTHENBURG  SYSTEM 

Swedish  people  and  they  have  answered  to  it.  The 
"classes,"  with  indecent  haste,  started  the  Bolag  on  its 
destructive  mission  again  but  the  nation  has  protested 
magnificently  against  its  continued  existence.  Within 
six  weeks  after  re-opening,  a  plebiscite  was  started  on 
the  question  of  prohibition.  Not  since  the  Temporal 
Power  was  voted  away  in  1870  has  any  institution  re- 
ceived a  more  crushing  popular  condemnation  than  has 
befallen  the  Gothenburg  System. 

The  burden  of  organizing  a  non-official  vote  has 
been  no  inconsiderable  one.  Electoral  machinery  for 
a  whole  nation  had  to  be  improvised.  But  the  half 
million  members  of  Swedish  temperance  organizations 
have  come  up  admirably  to  their  task. 

The  declaration  to  which  the  public  was  asked 
to  set  its  name  was  as  follows : 

"We,  the  undersigned  Swedish  men  and  women, 
realizing  the  injury  to  public  health  and  social  progress 
which  intoxicants  cause,  declare  it  to  be  our  opinion 
that  the  time  has  fully  come  to  take  the  first  steps  in 
the  direction  of  complete  and  permanent  prohibition 
of  their  sale  in  our  land." 

To  this  formula  was  added  a  short  historical  sur- 
vey. "The  greater  part  of  the  country  districts  are 
already  under  prohibition.  The  national  legislature 
has  repeatedly  commended  local  option  and  in  1907 
passed  legislation  (defeated  however  by  the  upper 
house)  for  national  prohibition  of  the  sale  of  spirits. 
Just  recently  his  Majesty's  government  has  set  a  com- 
mission to  consider  measures  for  re-adjustment  of  tax- 


THE  GOTHENBURG  SYSTEM  151 

ation  in  case  prohibition  become  the  law  of  the  land. 
The  extraordinarily  beneficent  results  of  the  five  weeks 
provisional  prohibition  of  this  summer  are  pointed  to 
as  an  earnest  of  what  a  permanent  adoption  of  that 
policy  would  mean." 

And  the  result  of  the  referendum? 

Gothenburg's  "Handels-Tidning"  declares  it  the 
most  powerful  expression  of  public  opinion  which  has 
ever  come  through  private  initiative  in  any  land.  The 
great  'extension-of-suffrage'  petition  of  1907  numbered 
350,000  names.  But  the  prohibition  petition  sums  up 
nearly  six  times  as  many.  The  Finnish  national  pro- 
test of  1899  which  was  considered  an  extraordinary 
fighting  demonstration  does  not  compare  with  the 
Swedish  prohibition  one,  even  relatively.  The  econom- 
ic resources  for  the  work  were  wholly  insufficient  but 
thousands  of  volunteers  made  up  for  shortage  of 
money. 

The  Central  Statistical  Bureau  places  the  whole 
number  of  persons  in  Sweden  above  eighteen  years  at 
3,387,964.  Of  these  one  and  one  quarter  million  have 
not  been  reached  by  the  registration.  It  is  not  im- 
probable that  in  this  category  there  may  be  a  some- 
what larger  contingent  of  the  indiflferent  and  hostile  but 
there  is  no  reason  to  believe  that  it  would  be  propor- 
tionately greatly  larger.  Of  the  whole  number  reached 
i>878,5i9  voted  for  prohibition.  This  is  55  per  cent  of 
the  entire  grown  population.  16,613  voted  against — 
one-half  of  one  per  cent  of  the  adult  population.  More 
than  one  and  one-half  million  persons  above  eighteen 


152  THE  GOTHENBURG  SYSTEM 

years  of  age  who  are  outside  of  all  temperance  organi- 
zations have  declared  themselves  prohibitionists.  In 
sixty-three  Swedish  cities  excluding  Stockholm  with 
a  total  population  of  400,000  over  18  years,  248,690  vot- 
ed for  prohibition  and  2,458  against.  In  Stockholm, 
the  Gibralter  of  the  drink  interest,  43.4  per  cent  of  the 
whole  adult  population  actually  registered  for  prohi- 
bition. There  were  95,446  yes — vs.  6,074  no,  with  29,- 
861  refusing  to  vote.  Of  these  last  3,637  declared  them- 
selves in  favor  of  prohibition,  6,194  against  and  20,034 
indifferent.  In  Gothenburg  the  home  of  the  System 
47.6  per  cent  of  the  entire  adult  population  voted  "dry." 
But  one  should  not  conclude  from  this  that  the  friends 
of  the  System  are  even  here  in  a  majority.  Quite  the 
contrary.  The  ratio  of  signatures  obtairusd  (and  every 
effort  was  made  to  get  as  complete  as  possible  a  regis- 
tration) was  fully  one  hundred  to  one  in  favor  of  pro- 
hibition. 

It  is  not  necessary  to  pile  statistic  on  statistic.  One 
gets  an  impression  of  the  great  strength  of  prohibition- 
ist opinion  from  such  statements  as  that  in  the  prov- 
ince of  Jonkoping,  for  example,  106,855  voted  for  pro- 
hibition and  only  836  voted  against.  In  Upsala  prov- 
ince 54,021  for  and  478  against;  Jamtland  52,029  yes, 
171  no;  Gotland  17,030  yes,  156  no;  Varmland  106,697 
yes,  201  no;  Alvsborg  96,264  yes,  815  no;  Kopperbarg 
102,  993  yes,  239  no,  and  so  on. 

One  of  the  most  astonishing  and  delightful  sur- 
prises in  connection  with  this  referendum  has  been  the 
extent  to  which  university  influence  has  favored  pro- 


THE  GOTHENBURG  SYSTEM  153 

hibition.  This  is  perhaps  as  much  due  to  the  prepara- 
tory work  among  Swedish  students  which  has  bound 
together  eleven  thousand  university,  gymnasial,  poly- 
technic and  other  students  into  the  Sveriges  Studer- 
ande  Ungdoms  Helnykterhetsforbund  —  an  admir- 
able league  of  anti-alcohol  students — as  to  the  prohi- 
bition weeks.  In  the  chief  university  town,  Upsala, 
12,668  voted  prohibition  and  236  voted  against  it.  Of 
the  students  who  voted  611  voted  for  and  114  against. 
Prof.  Frey  Svensson  the  well-known  psychiatrist  de- 
scribed alcohol  as  "the  king  of  poisons,'*  the  great  first 
cause  of  national  decay  and  threw  his  powerful  influ- 
ence to  the  prohibition  side.  Prof,  Santesson  denounced 
those  who  selfishly  refused  to  give  up  their  vice  for  the 
public  good.  Prof.  Gustav  Cassels,  the  political  econ- 
omist, declared  the  alcohol  capital  to  be  "worthless, 
wasted,  more  than  that,  a  positive  evil.  It  is  like  cap- 
ital laid  down  in  the  construction  of  a  hostile  fortress 
in  the  heart  of  our  land  spreading  ruin  on  all  sides.  If 
the  camp  had  cost  ever  so  much  it  must  be  razed  to  the 
ground."  And  then  he  went  on  to  say  what  is  so 
obviously  true  and  so  unexpected  from  a  political  econ- 
omist's lips:  "There  is  no  real  wealth  except  life. 
There  is  something  wrong  when  people  defend  a  busi- 
ness the  only  fruits  of  which  are  tears  and  cursing. 
This  is  a  political  economy  of  death  not  of  life.  To 
make  life  cleaner,  more  beautiful,  richer — to  fill  the 
land  with  alert,  clear-headed,  bright  young  people-^ 
that's  the  best  political  economy  for  Sweden.'* 

The   medical   professors    Henschen,    Medin    and 


154  THE  GOTHENBURG  SYSTEM 

Petren  signed  the  prohibition  appeal.  That  charming 
writer,  Selma  Lagerlof,  expressed  her  hope  for  an  alco- 
hol-free Sweden.    Prof.  Wallis  wrote : 

"To  find  the  right  solution  of  the  alcohol  problem 
is  the  central  task  of  all  social  effort.  Industrial  prob- 
lems, questions  arising  from  falling  birth  and  rising 
death  rates,  and  all  the  rest,  can  be  settled  only  when 
the  use  of  alcohol  has  ceased.  The  Swedish  people 
must  head  the  movement,  first  of  enlightenment  as  to 
the  evil,  and  finally  of  its  abolition  through  prohibitory 
legislation. 

"If  we  fail  in  obtaining  the  wills  and  consciences  of 
people  through  educational  effort  we  must  look  around 
for  the  political  weapon  which  will  break  the  way  for 
us.  This  we  shall  find  in  woman's  ballot.  The  wives 
of  work-people  in  our  capital  city  have  seen  the  bless- 
ings of  prohibition  in  the  strike  days.  With  their  po- 
litical emancipation  the  strongest  fortress  of  the  Swed- 
ish drink  interest  will  soon  be  taken." 

What  are  the  prospects  of  the  near  future? 
Bright  indeed.  The  second  chamber  of  the 
Riksdag  voted  last  February  unanimously  to  take  up 
for  consideration  the  subject  of  national  prohibition. 
The  first  chamber,  like  the  English  House  of  Lords,  a 
spider-clot  of  reaction  with  its  landed  aristocracy, 
its  bishops,  its  distillers,  refused  to  consent  to  the 
proposal. 

Fortunately  the  new  suffrage  conditions  point  to  a 
decided  change  in  the  character  and  quality  of  this 
chamber. 


THE  GOTHENBURG  SYSTEM  155 

Then  look  out,  ye  partisans  of  international  race- 
poisoning!  Enforced  national  prohibition  in  Sweden 
will  give  an  illustration  which  will  work  like  a  quick 
contagion  elsewhere. 


SUPPLEMENTARY  CHAPTER 

TO   THE 

Breakdown  of  the  Gothenburg  System 

By  ERNEST  GORDON 

On    page    25    it    is    stated    that    the    Swedish    Company 

managers  receive  all  profits  from  the  sale  of  beer.     Since  1909 

this  is  no  longer  the  case  in   those  shops  which  the   Company 

itself  operates. 

****** 

"Aftonposten,'"  of  Christiania,  which  represents  the  most 
acrid  type  of  pro-alcohol  capitalist  opinion,  published  on  the 
first  page  of  its  issue  for  the  12th  of  January,  1912,  a  long 
article,  entitled  "A  More  Temperate  City."  Here  are  a  few 
sentences   from    it : 

"The  increasing  drunkenness  in  the  city  is  calculated  to 
awaken  attention.  It  has  been  announced  that  arrests  for  this 
cause  during  the  past  year  (1911)  show  an  increase  of  4,500 
over  the  number  for  3909.  We  applied  to  Police  Inspector 
Sorensen  for  his  opinion  of  the  situation. 

"  'Yes,'  said  the  Inspector,  'our  drunkenness  is  a  disgrace 
to  us.  This  should  be  said,  and  often  said,  that  it  may  stir  peo- 
ple. Something  ought  to  be  done  to  prevent  our  city's  being 
number  one  with  a  long  lead  in  this  direction.  .  .  .  You 
may  believe  it  is  hopeless  work  for  us  police  with  all  this  drunk- 
enness and  wretchedness  among  the  poorly  situated  classes. 
Most  of  the  arrested  are  dragged  to  the  station  dead  drunk 
Heads  of  families,  who  have  drunk  the  money  wives  and  children 
require  for  food ;  young  boys,  who  have  wasted  the  kroner 
mothers  needed ;  loafers,  shaking  drunkards — every  day  in  the 
year   the   same   unending   tragedy.' " 

And  then,  without  moving  a  muscle  of  his  face,  he  goes 
on  to  suggest  a  remedy.  "If  the  sale  of  half-liter  bottles,  which 
can  be  easily  secreted  in  the  pocket,  were  forbidden  and  only 
whole  liters  sold,  things  would  be  better." 


2  THE   GOTHENBURG   SYSTEM 

Something  must  be  done !  There  is  to  be  an  assault  all  along 
the  line  on  the  Samlag  System  in  1913.  The  temperance  party, 
the  Socialists  and  the  women  voters  make  a  dangerous  com- 
bination. Inspector  Sorensen  confesses  that  the  Samlags  on 
Grondlandstorv  and  Lilletorv  (Christiania)  are  simply  "traps" 
(faldgriiher)  for  the  poorest  of  the  city.  He  thinks  ''if  the 
drinking-places  were  kept  clean,  and  if  there  were  a  distinct 
limit  to  the  amount  of  drink  one  were  allowed  to  buy,  we 
should   see   an   improvement." 

The  head  director  of  the  Christiania  Samlag,  Mr,  Klingen- 
berg,  did  not  relish  this  semi-official  exposure.  He  retorted  the 
next  day  in  the  press  that  the  Police  Inspector's  utterances 
showed  little  knowledge  of  the  real  situation,  and  that  if  there 
should  be  any  fixed  limit  to  the  amount  of  drink  sold  to  in- 
dividuals "much  dissatisfaction  would  undoubtedly  be  awakened" 
(among  drinkers).  He  thought  it  eminently  fitting  that  the 
drink-shops  should  be  placed  "where  the  public  passed"  (i.  e., 
on  the  market-places  in  the  poorest  quarters  of  the  city). 

Whereat  the  Police  Inspector  returned  to  the  charge  in  the 
following   words : 

"I  could  never  understand  how  it  could  be  considered  con- 
gruous with  the  Samlag's  alleged  purposes  to  allow  people  to 
sit  in  its  drinking-places  and  pour  down  from  ten  to  fifteen 
glasses  of  spirits — sometimes  even  more,  not  to  speak  of  a 
greater  or  less  quantity  of  beer^often  early  in  the  morning 
and  without  serving  food.  I  will  not  insist  that  there  are 
many  who  drink  fifteen  glasses  on  the  stretch  in  these  shops. 
But  it  occurs,  and  nothing  is  done  to  hinder  it.  There  are  not 
infrequently  people  who  do  away  with  ten  glasses  and  a  suit- 
able amount  of  beer  at  the  same  time.  Workmen  sit  and  drink 
in  this  way  without  having  eaten.  If  these  people  are  not  clearly 
drunk  during  their  stay  in  the  drink-shop  they  are  drunk  later. 
Some  are  arrested,  but  some  get  home  to  terrorize  wife  and 
children. 

"Neither  can  I  understand  how  the  Samlag  can  serve  brandy 


THE   GOTHENBURG  SYSTEM  3 

and  beer  together,  as  much  as  is  called  for,  and  without  food. 
This  combination  is  very  intoxicating.  The  Samlag  should  sell 
only  one  of  them  to  people  who  have  not  eaten.  From  my 
personal  knowledge  and  from  material  in  my  possession  I  can 
affirm  that  it  is  not  uncommon  for  drink  to  be  sold  to  intoxi- 
cated persons.  The  Samlag  does  nothing,  as  far  as  I  know, 
to  reduce  the  consumption  of  drink.  Since  last  October  they 
have  arranged  in  Gothenburg  to  sell  spirits  only  with  meals 
Our  Samlag  ought  to  close  its  shops  at  7  p.  m.,  and  to  close 
the  worst  of  them  up  for  good.  There  must  be  a  change.  If 
not,  I  believe  we  may  reckon  with  the  possibility  of  the  closing 
of   all   of  them   in  the  next   elections." 

I  happened  across  a  delegation  of  three  Englishmen  last 
summer,  who  were  studying  the  Gothenburg  System.  They  were 
loud  in  its  praises,  having  observed  its  action  two  days  in 
Bergen  and  a  half  day  in  Christiania.  They  were  going,  I 
believe,  to  Gothenburg  also.  Professor  Jensen,  who  was  show- 
ing them  about  the  city,  took  us  to  the  Samlag  shop  on  Youngs- 
torvet.  The  visitors  seemed  satisfied  with  its  general  appear- 
ance. 

This  is  what  a  correspondent  in  "Afholdsbladet*'  (Novem- 
ber 25,  1911)   writes  of  this  particular  shop: 

"At  regular  intervals  there  are  complaints  of  drunkenness 
on  Youngstorvet.  Sometimes  these  complaints  come  to  the 
surface  in  mass  meetings,  gotten  up  by  the  residents  of  the 
neighborhood,  and  incredible  stories  are  told  of  drunkenness 
and  rowdyism,  even  under  the  windows  of  the  police  station ; 
of  the  discomforts  which  residents  have  to  endure.  Resolu- 
tions are  passed,  the  papers  report  the  meeting  and  the  result? 

Status   Quo! 

"The  last  report  is  in  'Tidens  Tegn'  (a  Christiania  daily)  : 
'It  is  sad  to  see  the  crowd  of  ragged  men  who  loaf  around 
the  Samlag  in  Youngstorvet.  It  is  a  resort  for  a  gang  of 
idlers  and  drunkards,  and  a  dangerous  centre  of  temptation 
to  the  country  people  who  come  to  the  market  with  wares.    In 


4  THE   GOTHENBURG  SYSTEM 

spite  of  the  fact  that  police  station  and  Samlag  are  close  neigh- 
bors this  constitutes  one  of  the  ugliest  places  in  our  city.'  " 

Then  this  correspondent  proceeds  to  tell  other  things.  "I 
had  supposed  that  no  Samlag  gave  credit,  and  had  insisted  that 
here,  at  least,  was  one  point  in  the  System's  favor.  But  alas ! 
this  light  spot  is  darkened  by  a  notice  in  'Mercantil  Oplysnings- 
tidende'  of  the  confiscation  of  property  for  debt  by  a  Sam- 
lag. This  Samlag,  as  any  other  business,  had,  in  order  to  hold 
its  nose  above  water  in  the  general  competition,  given  credit. 
And  one  other  interesting  occurrence.  Three  hundred  bottles 
of  brandy  were  confiscated  lately  at  the  Moss  railroad  station. 
They  had  been  consigned  to  Lars  Karlstad,  a  bootlegger  in 
•Moss.  The  consignment  was  sent  from  the  Samlag  in  Holen. 
My  last  illusion  concerning  the  Samlag  System  has  died  a  pain- 
ful death." 

In  the  fall  of  1911  there  were  many  complaints  of  drunken- 
ness among  passengers  on  the  railways  running  out  of  Christi- 
ania.  This  went  so  far  that  the  West  Railroad  and  Smaalens 
Railroad  appointed  special  officers  to  keep  order  on  its  trains, 
and  this  not  only  at  the  terminal  station,  but  on  the  route. 
("Aftonposten,"  November  22,  1911.)  'Tidens  Tegn"  declared 
that  the  authorities  were  not  strict  enough  in  insisting  on  tem- 
perance among  the  railway  personnel,  and  a  correspondent  in 
the  same  paper  described  how  some  of  these  fill  their  handbags 
with  bottles  of  spirits  in  the  city  and  retail  them  to  country 
people  along  the  railway.  Another  illustration  of  Christiania's 
alcoholism  is  given  by  Director  Kjaer.  Some  years  ago  he 
placed  counters  at  two  suitable  points  to  register  the  number 
of  intoxicated  returning  from  Holmenkollen  after  the  winter 
sports  on  "Holmenkollen  Day"  (ski-running,  ski-jumping,  etc.). 
Of  the  15,785  persons  who  passed  308  were  visibly  drunk,  or 
one  in  every  fifty!     And  this  was  a  "better-class"  crowd. 

Pastor  Eugene  Hanssen,  who  is  a  member  of  the  committee 
j>et  by  the  communal  authorities  of  Christiania  to  consider  re- 
forms in  the  poor  relief  of  the  city,  has  just  reported  on  the 


THE  GOTHENBURG  SYSTEM  5 

relation  of  drink  to  poverty.  He  has  made  a  careful  study  of 
the  life  history  of  300  representative  families,  and  on  the 
basis  of  results  obtained  concludes*  that  70%  of  the 
city's  poverty  can  be  safely  set  down  to  drink;  in  other 
words,  that  1,600  of  the  2,300  families  receiving  poor  relief 
were  brought  to  their  fall  by  parental  alcohol  excesses.  In  nine 
years  these  families  have  cost  the  city  5  million  Kroner. 
After  narrating  the  fate  of  various  families  the  speaker  said: 
"I  have  been  soul-sick  at  all  the  misery  I  have  seen  this  winter 
(in  the  course  of  the  investigation).  I  had  not  dreamed  that 
things  were  so  fearful.  One  sees  how  family  after  family 
sinks  lower  and  lower.  All  our  efforts  for  their  betterment 
are  essentially  fruitless.  The  fault  in  our  method  is  that  it 
is  a  hospital  method  rather  than  a  preventative  hygienic  one. 
It  is  of  no  use  trying  to  doctor  up  these  drunken  men.  We 
must  stop  the  sale  of  drink.  These  investigations  have  given 
me  a  deeper  and  deeper  understanding  for  the  prohibitive  prin- 
ciple." 

Eulogists  of  the  Gothenburg  System  delight  in  pointing  to 
the  relatively  low  consumption  of  drink  in  Sweden.  Throw 
out  the  Bolag-free  districts  and  then  take  your  reckoning,  gentle- 
men !  Stockholm's  consumption  of  various  forms  of  strong 
liquors  is  computed  at  about  seven  million  liters,  or  twenty 
liters  of  spirits  for  every  man,  woman,  child  and  sucking 
infant.  To  this  must  be  added  115  liters  of  beer  for  each 
individual  in  these  categories.  The  price  Stockholmers  pay  for 
these  suicidal  purchases  is  35  million  kroner  yearly.  Mr.  Lind- 
blom,  a  poor-inspector  of  the  city,  reported  at  a  caritative  con- 
gress in  Gothenburg  that  51.07%  of  the  children  taken 
in  charge  by  the  city  of  Stockholm  were  victims  of  parental 
alcoholism,  and  that  6,400  people  were  helped  yearly  by  com- 
munal relief  funds,  who  owed  their  poverty  directly  to  drink.  (i> 
That   sturdy  defender  of   the    System,   the   late    Mr.    S.   Wiesel- 

(1)     Heleuius,  "Alkoholsporgsmaiet,"  p.  352. 


6  THE   GOTHENBURG  SYSTEM 

gren,  acknowledged  in  a  paper  read  at  the  Brussels  Prison  Con- 
gress of  1900  that  alcoholism  exerted  an  "unexampled  influence 
on  Swedish  criminality."  Over  70%  of  the  crimes  of 
the  19,453  men  in  Swedish  prisons  in  1887-97  stood  in  some 
relation  to  drink.  (Detailed  tables  can  be  found  in  Helenius' 
**Alkoholsporgsmalet,"   ch.   8.) 

And  just  as  the  great  consumption  of  drink  in  Sweden  is 
in  the  Bolag-cursed  cities,  so  the  bulk  of  the  drunkenness  is  to 
be  found  there.  At  the  Stockholm  Anti-alcohol  Congress  Mr. 
Almquist  stated  that  while  Swedish  cities  contained  but  23.5% 
of  the  population,  75.5%  of  all  the  convictions  were  from  them.  ^^ 
How  mercilessly  the  alcohol-sick  are  exploited  can  be  gathered 
from  a  letter  which  appeared  in  "Tidens  Tegn"  for  January 
23,  1912.  It  was  from  a  Stockholm  correspondent,  and  re- 
ported the  conviction  to  prison  of  a  drunkard  for  the  130th 
time,  and  of  a  woman  suffering  from  the  same  sickness,  who 
had   been,   because   of   it,   arrested   67  times. 

We  could  go  on  indefinitely  with  illustrative  matter  of 
this  type.  Professor  Wallis,  when  asked  at  the  Budapest 
Congress  to  give  his  opinion  about  the  System,  said :  "We 
have  had  forty  years'  experience  of  it.  Our  feelings  concern- 
ing it  are  of  a  very  mixed  character.  Theory  is  good  gold ; 
practise  is  bad  nickel."  *'*  One  of  the  most  dispassionate  and 
most  searching  judgments  of  the  System  known  to  the  writer 
is  the  paper  read  by  Mr.  August  Ljunggren  at  the  Stockholm 
Congress.  After  characterizing  the  System  as  "obsolete  and 
impotent"  he  went  on  to  say :  "It  is,  without  doubt,  a  great 
temptation  for  a  Swede  who  loves  his  country  and  would 
gladly  see  it  honored  and  esteemed  to  join  in  the  inter- 
national hymn  of  praise  which  rises  in  honor  of  the  Swedish 
Company  System ;  but  I  must  believe  that  telling  the  truth 
concerning    it    will    bring    us    the    more    enduring    honor.  .  .  . 

(2)  Bericht  ii.  d.  XI.  Kongress  geiren  d.  Alkoholismus.  p.  207. 

(3)  Xi^me  Congr^s  Int.  eontre  rAlcoolisme.     Rapports  et  Compte- 
Bendu.  p.  298. 


THE   GOTHENBURG  SYSTEM  7 

One  gets  in  Rowntree  and  Sherwell  a  wholly  different  pic- 
ture from  that  which  is  current  in  Sweden.  By  referring 
to  legislation  in  Norway  and  Finland,  and  by  tacking  on 
principles  which  do  not  belong  to  the  Gothenburg  System, 
they  succeed  in  conjuring  up  pictures  which  have  little  to 
do    with    it."  (1) 


(1)  Bericht  ii.  d.  XI,  Kongress,  pp.  361  and  351.  In  the  annual 
course  for  the  scientific  study  of  alcoholism  held  in  a  hall  of  Ber- 
lin University,  Dr.  Eggers  says  ("Der  Alkoholismus,"  Berlin,  1907, 
p.  86),  and  double-leads  the  statement  in  the  printed  report:  "There 
is  no  spirits  capital  in  Scandinavia."  But  a  year  or  more  ago  the 
Swedish  papers  were  occupied  with  the  new  spirits'  trust,  which  the 
various  Swedish  distilleries  were  on  the  point  of  forming.  On  p.  85 
he  affirms  (again  in  double  leads)  that  "the  fall  in  the  consumption 
o.f  spirits  in  Scandinavia  must  be  put  down  to  the  credit  of  the 
System." 

Mr.  Sherwell  was  lynx-eyed  enough  when  it  came  to  ferreting 
out  one  or  another  kitchen  bar  in  Portland.  One  would  like  to 
know  to  what  extent  he  and  Mr.  Rowntree  and  Dr.  Eggers  have 
studied  the  published  criticisms  of  the  System  which  have  appeared 
in  Scaadinavia.  On  this  question  of  the  decline  of  the  spirits  sale  in 
Norway,  for  example,  a  brief  paper  was  read  at  the  Third  Int. 
Anti-alcohol  Congress,  which  constitutes  a  crushingly  complete  refu- 
tation of  Dr.  Eggers'  contention.  This  appeared  in  1890,  many 
years  before  Rowntree  and  Sherwell's  Bible  of  Gothenburgism 
saw  daylight.     I  will  quote  a  few  sentences. 

Though  granting  that  the  number  of  drink-shops  is  less  than 
formerly,  Mr.  Aarestad  points  out  that  while  the  earlier  ones  were 
generally  in  side  streets  and  lanes,  the  Samlag  shops,  as  a  rule, 
are  posted  near  railway  stations,  quais  and  market-places,  where 
the  number  of  passers  is  far  greater.  The  visitation  of  a  single 
shop  in  the  smaller  cities  is  probably  nearly  as  great  as  that  of 
two  of  the  earlier  type.  During  the  first  twenty  years  that  the  Sam- 
lags  operated  the  sales  of  certain  of  them  distinctly  increased.  Thus, 
Hammerfest's  (13,014  liters  in  1880)  rose  to  19,750  in  1888.  Sarps- 
borg's  (28.927  liters  in  1883)  rose  year  by  year  until,  in  1888.  it 
was  40,082.  Skien's  (18,209  1.  in  1881,  its  first  year)  mounted  stead- 
ily during  seA'en  years  up  to  97.100.  Arendal's  snle  advanced  from 
39,567  to  57.231.  Drammen.  Honefos.  Vadso,  Gjovik.  Kongsberg  .'ind 
Bodo  also  showed  a  rising  tendency  in  the  years  before  1890.  The 
directorate  of  the  Ilonefos  Samlag  pointed  out  that  there  had  been 
a  steady  rise  in  sale,  yet  affirmed  in  every  annual  report  that  thej" 
had  done  all  in  tlieir  power  to  bring  about  a  reduction  in   sales! 

The  regulative  features  in  Samlag  administration  have  no  effect 
on  the  wholesale  trade  of  the  Samlags,  the  so-called  "anker"  sale 
(an    "anker"    is   a   forty-liter    wooden    cask).      Yet    it   has    been    just 


8  THE  GOTHENBURG  SYSTEM 

One  is  astonished,  indeed,  at  the  hardihood  of  those  who. 
in  attempting  a  description  of  the  situation  in  Sweden,  pass 
by  so  much  that  is  damaging  and  which  lies  on  the  surface 
for  the  observation  of  every  one.  But  there  are  further 
sources  of  information  which  no  thorough  investigator  should 
have  left  unexamined,  and  which  can  furnish  deep  tones  enough 


in  this  line  that  the  Samlag  turnover  has  chiefly  shrunk.  While 
the  bar  and  bottle  sale  had  in  no  case  (up  to  1890)  gone  down  to 
more  than  one-third  af  the  initial  sale,  the  "anker"  or  wholesale 
trade,  had  melted  to  one-eighth,  one-tenth,  one-twelfth,  one-four- 
teenth, and  in  some  cases  to  one-twentieth  of  the  original  sale! 
Thus,  in  the  representative  and  well-administered  Kristiansaud  Sam- 
lag  the  retail  trade  declined  from  140,372  to  95.527,  but  the  Samlag's 
"anker"  sale  fell  from  10,635  1.  to  346  1.  (The  private  "anker" 
sale  in  the  town  fell  at  the  same  time  from  81,756  to  11,974.)  But 
this  is  not  all.  Mr.  Aarestad  aflirms  (p.  180)  that  the  retail  sale, 
the  sale  on  which  the  Samlag  System  would  naturally  exert  any 
influence  it  was  capable  of  exerting,  had  actually  risen  relatively. 
In  1870  the  sales  under  40  liters  constituted  41%  of  total  sales.  In 
1890  they  had  risen  to  46%.  In  other  words,  the  Samlag  System 
had  had  no  apparent  part  in  the  decline  in  Norwegian  spirits 
consumption. 

To  what,  then,  does  Mr.  Aarestad  attribute  the  fall  in  con- 
sumption, and  especially  the  decline  in  wholesale  trade?  Solely 
to  the  temperance  movement.  The  "anker"  trade  was  chiefly  rural, 
and  the  temperance  movement  has  also  had  its  strength  predomi- 
natingly in  the  country.  Further,  those  Samlags  whose  trade  had, 
up  to  1890,  most  fallen  oflf  were  the  ones  situated  in  districts  where 
the  temperance  movement  had  struck  deepest  root,  viz..  Stavanger, 
Lister,  Mandal,  Nedenaes,  Jarlsberg  and  Larvik.  The  tables  which 
Mr.  Aarestad  produces  are  extremely  convincing.  It  is  interesting 
to  note  how  by  a  regular  progression  the  number  of  organized 
temperance  societies  in  Nedenaes  rose  from  3  with  50  members 
in  1875  to  65  with  7,630  members  in  1880,  and  how  year  by  year 
sales  in  the  five  Samlags  of  the  province  dropped  from  182,185 
liters  to  114.284.  and  of  the  "anker"  sale  from  18,088  to  4.238  liters. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  provinces  where  the  temperance  movement 
had,  before  1890,  difiiculty  in  entering,  were  just  the  ones  where 
the  Samlag  sale  was  either  advancing  or  stationary — Buskerud  (with 
the  Drammen.  Kongsberg  and  Honefos  Samlags)  and  the  districts 
about  Hammerfest,  Sarpsborg  and  Yadso. 

It  may  be  added  that  since  Mr.  Aarestad's  paper  was  published 
the  closing  of  many  Samlags  all  over  Norway  has.  as  in  the  case 
of  Trondhjem  (see  p.  43).  stimulated  the  extra-urban  sale  again. 
The  drinking  minorities  of  the  areas,  bereft  of  their  own  Samlags, 
naturally  turn  for  their  supplies  to  the  Samlags  still  remaining. 


THE   GOTHENBURG  SYSTEM  9 

for  any  canvas.  We  have  in  the  preceding  pages  borrowed 
from  Mr.  Oscar  Petersson's  relentless  criticism  of  the  System.  ^2) 
But  this  study  was  preceded  by  an  earher  one,  which  was  based 
Dn  the  Report  of  the  Royal  Finance  Department  delivered  to 
the  Riksdag  of  1895.  (3)  It  is  a  brief  pamphlet,  but  contains 
game  scent  enough  to  have  put  any  investigators  on  the  right 
track  who  were  really  in  search   of  game. 

We  will  not  duplicate  evidence,  but  merely  add  certain  points 
from  Messrs.  Petersson  and  Ljunggren,  which  have  not  been 
emphasized.  Mr.  Petersson  shows,  for  example,  how  the  theory 
of  disinterested  management  is  caricatured  in  empiry.  "The 
Bolags  of  Calmar,  Oskarshamn  and  Karlshamn  pay  their  man- 
agement with  5%  to  10%  of  the  net  income.  In  Ronneby  the  di- 
rectors receive  300  Kr.  plus  2%  of  the  gross  income.  In  Stromstad 
they  receive  500  Kr.  plus  5%  of  the  net  income.  In  Skara  the 
manager  is  paid  2,000  Kr.  plus  10%  of  the  net  income,  zvhich  runs 
over  2,000  Kr.  (One  can  imagine  how  this  arrangement  would 
interest  the  manager  in  keeping  down  sales!)  In  Ostersund  he 
receives  a  free  house,  5,000  Kroner  and  5%  of  the  net  income. 
In  Marstrand,  again,  he  is  given  3  ore  for  every  liter  of  spirits 
sold,  plus  one  half  per  cent,  of  the  cost  price  of  the  wares  sold.^*) 
In  many  cases  the  regulation  fixing  the  limit  of  profit  is  gotten 
round  by  allowing  the  manager  1%  to  2%  of  the  gross  income 
— for  leakage  and  spillage !  (^^ 

There  is  a  great  variation  in  purchasing  and  selling  prices 
among  the  different  Bolags.  This  is  suggestive  of  juggling.  Thus, 
in  Hernosand,  for  example,  the  cost  price  of  spirits  was  10.5 
ore  per  liter  more  than  in  the  neighboring  Sundsvall  Bolag. 
In  Engleholm  the  Bolag  paid  from  5.5  ore  to  9  ore  more  per 
liter  for  spirits  than  any  other  Bolag  in  the  Province  of  Skane. 

y ^ — 

(2)  Oscar  Petersson.  Sv.  rusdrykshtjrstiftninKeu.  etc. 

(3)  do.,       do.,     Goteborgs      Systemet.       En      Studie,      Stockholm, 
1897. 

(4)  do.,      do.,    p.  14. 

(5)  Petersson,  loc.  cit.,  p.  18, 


10  THE  GOTHENBURG  SYSTEM 

In  one  year  purchasing  prices  varied  with  diflFerent  Bolags  be- 
tween 72  and  120  ore,  and  selling  places  between  105  and  155 
ore.  "' 

What  is  even  more  discreditable  is  the  fact,  recently  dis- 
covered, that  Bolags  have,  in  order  to  attract  trade,  put  down 
the  price  of  the  brandy  with  a  higher  alcohol  content.  Formerly 
the  Bolags  competed  against  each  other  by  giving  rebates  on 
large  sales,  but  the  government  stopped  this.  Now  they  lower 
the  price  of  a  "drunk"  by  increasing  the  alcohol  percentage 
and  cutting  rates  on  this  more  intoxicating  solution.  Thus  prices 
are  at  present   (1912)   for 

Gothenburg 1.50  Kr.  per  liter  for  30%  spirits. 

Kungsbacka 1.30  "        **        **  *'  40%         " 

Marstrand 1.30  "         *'        "  "  45% 

Lysekil 1.25  "         "        "  "  46% 

and  so  on.  "' 

We  have  explained  how  Bolags  have  been  found  hiring  their 
places  from  the  cities  at  exorbitant  rates.  Mr.  Petersson 
affirms  that  it  is  not  uncommon  for  them  to  hire  selHng-places 
from  shareholders.  One  is  mentioned,  which  hired  all  its  selling- 
places  from  one  stockholder.  "^  In  Skara,  according  to  the 
auditor's  report,  the  Bolag  suffered  a  clear  loss  of  4,100  Kr. 
through  excessive  rents.  "'  In  Ulricehamn  the  Bolag  has 
handed  over  its  right  of  selling  bottled  goods  to  a  private  com- 
pany, and  pledges  itself  to  buy  all  the  spirits  it  needs  for  its 
retail  trade  from  this  company,  an  arrangement  which  gives 
abundant  opportunity  for  making  one  hand  wash  the  other.  ^*^ 
That   such   operations   take   place  elsewhere    is   illustrated   in   a 


(1)     Petersson,  loc.  eit.,  p.  IS. 

(2)  Dr.  Scharffenber?.  at  the  Haariie  Congi'ess,  1911,  publicly 
charged  Norwegian  Samlags  with  sending  pure  alcohol  to  mining 
and  factory  districts  in  the  country.  This  enables  drinkers  to  get 
drunk  more  quickly.     ("Direkte  folkeafstemninger,"  p.  32.) 

(3)  Petersson,   loc.   cit.,   p.    15. 

(4)  do.,  do.,  p.  lo. 


THE   GOTHENBURG   SYSTEM  11 

report  in  "Svenuka  Morgenbladet"  (February  13,  1912)  of  a 
meeting  of  the  Stockholm  City  Council  the  evening  before. 
The  Stockholm  Bolag  was  on  the  rack.  It  was  asserted  that 
various  wine-dealers  were  giving  false  declarations  to  the  Bolag. 
The  reporting  auditor  sharply  scored  the  Bolag  for  allowing 
such  practises  to  go  on,  and  Dr.  Bratt  declared  that  its  general 
management  was  of  such  a.  character  that  it  deserved  simply 
to  be   dissolved   and   a   new   Bolag   formed. 

"The  Bolag  System  has  brought  demoralization  to  city  gov- 
ernments and  to  individuals  coming  into  contact  with  it,"  says 
Mr.  Petersson.  This  opinion  is  confirmed  by  Professor  WalHs 
in  the  above-mentioned  speech  at  Buda  Pest.  "The  Gothen- 
burg System  has  corrupted  the  officials  of  the  cities.  All  our 
cities  are  corrupted  in  this  respect."  ^^^  This  judgment  was 
given  at  an  international  congress,  without  heat,  by  one  of  the 
most  responsible  persons  in  Sweden.  In  illustration,  Mr.  Peters- 
son  instances  the  fact  that  it  is  no  uncommon  thing,  when  a 
man  or  company  applies  for  the  right  to  sell  in  a  place,  offer- 
ing to  be  taxed  on  the  basis  of  a  4,000  liter  annual  sale,  for 
another  applicant,  with  a  taxing  limit  of  3,000  liter,  to  receive 
the  license,  even  though  the  first  person  be  in  every  way  quali- 
fied for  the  enterprise.  This  because  thC'  accepted  person  has 
a  "pull"  with  members  of  the  communal  government.  ^^^  Mr. 
Petersson  adds  the  interesting  fact  that  when  communes  with- 
out Bolags  have  come  into  a  tight  place  financially  and  it  is 
proposed  to  introduce  a  Bolag  to  ease  the  fiscal  strain,  this 
proposal  invariably  comes  from  "the  pillars  of  society,"  the 
well-to-do — never  from  the  people.  (2) 

These  rich  men  in  the  communes,  who  profit  in  devious  ways 
from  the  Bolags,  have  been  able,  says  Mr.  Ljunggren,  by  their 
connections  in  the  Upper  Chamber  of  Riksdag,  to  turn  down 
local-option   legislation,   which   the   Lower    House   has    sent    up. 


(1)  Xi^me  Confrr&s  Int.  contre  I'Alcoolisme,  p.  299. 

(2)  Petersson,  loc.  cit.,  p.  24. 


12  THE   GOTHENBURG  SYSTEM 

"If  the  trade  in  spirits  is  forbidden,"  said  one  representative 
of  "the  classes''  in  the  Upper  House  quite  frankly,  "it  will  not 
be  pleasant  to  be  a  taxpayer  in  the  country."  ^^'>  It  is  from  this 
stratum  that  those  in  control  of  the  Bolags  come.  In  a  great 
number  of  cities  the  sale  of  spirits  has  become  the  monopoly 
of  a  few  town  magnates,  who,  with  their  plural  votes,  have 
had  a  commanding  position  in  the  community.  <2)  High  salaries 
and  large  honoraria  for  directors,  managers  and  auditors  have 
tempted  to  the  formation  of  companies  with  a  very  small  num- 
ber of  shareholders.  Of  87  companies  in  1892  not  less  than 
22  had  only  2-3  shareholders.  ^^^  In  the  smaller  places  the 
Bolag  often  controls  the  whole  communal  administration.  Very 
many  companies  have  handed  over  all  licenses  to  private  persons 
to  operate.  The  social  position  and  character  of  the  company 
managers  have  not  proved  a  guarantee  against  crookedness.  The 
companies  have  been  the  bitterest  enemies  of  the  temperance 
party,  especially  when  attempts  have  been  made  to  limit  the 
number  of  drink-shops  licensed.  Yet  when  licenses  have  been 
suppressed  they  have  claimed  this  as  proof  of  their  concern 
for  temperance.  ^^^ 

Mr.  Ljunggren  gives  further  particulars  of  the  extent  to 
which  disinterested  management  is  reduced  to  a  farce  in  Stock- 
holm. This  Bolag,  in  1904-5,  rented  out  138  of  its  licenses  to 
private  persons,  operating  only  92  itself.  From  the  92  its  profit 
was  2,195,398  Kr.  From  the  138  it  received  only  367,577  Kr. 
In  other  words,  the  bulk  of  the  profits  from  the  major  part 
of  the  licenses  went  into  private  pockets.  Mr.  Ljunggren  made 
investigations  as  to  the  amount  of  these  profits  in  1906.  He 
found  them  to  have  been  2,460,298  Kr,  <*) 

(It  Berifht  ii.  d.  XI.  Int.  Kongress  gejren  d.  Alkobolismus.  p. 
352.  The  Riksdag  has  put  a  period  to  this  game  by  the  law  of 
Oct.  1.  1907.     Art.  15.,  sec.  3. 

(2)  In  some  communes,  before  the  recent  electoral  reforms,  a 
single  person  could,  on  the  ground  of  property  qualifications,  out- 
vote   all    other    members    of    the    communal   corporation. 

(.*?)     Bericht  ii.  d.  XI.  Int.  Kongress,  p.  359. 

(4)  do.,    do.,  p.  353. 


THE   GOTHENBURG  SYSTEM  13 

These  sub-let  licenses  are  utilized  to  run  saloons  far  over 
the  stipulated  hours,  and  in  many  cases  night  and  day.  Sixty- 
eight  drink-shops  were  found  to  be  running  till  12  o'clock, 
although  the  legal  closing  time  was  fixed  at  10  o'clock.  Forty- 
six  had  permission  to  run  all  night  through,  this  right  being 
given  for  one  week  at  a  time.  From  January  1  to  December 
10,  1906,  1,456  of  these  all-night  permissions  were  issued  in 
Stockholm, 

Fifty-nine  wine-shops  of  the  better  type  also  have  rights 
of  selling  overtime.  When  objections  were  formally  made 
agdinst  this  practise  not  only  did  the  drink-sellers  themselves 
protest  against  interference,  but  the  management  of  the  Bolag, 
together  with  the  highest  administrative  authority  of  the  city, 
unanimously  and  vigorously  affirmed  that  to  limit  the  hours 
of  selling  would  drive  away  tourists,  rob  thousands  of  their  daily 
bread  and  ruin  the  restaurants.  ^^^ 

The  System  bravely  tries  to  keep  up  its  reputation  before 
the  international  public.  In  1904  Director  Fitger,  of  Gothen- 
burg, went  to  the  Bremen  Anti-alcohol  Congress  to  defend  Com- 
pany management.  He  acknowledged  that  the  Gothenburg  Bolag 
"was  not  carrying  on  the  fight  against  drunkenness  with  the 
bright  enthusiasm  of  a  victorious  champion,"  but  that  "it  was 
on  the  defensive,  in  a  resigned  attitude."  "One  cannot  make 
the  System  responsible  for  human  imperfections,"  he  added, 
affirming  unctuously  that  "its  task  was  to  be  a  brother's 
keeper  to  ^  those  threatened  with  drunkenness."  (2) 

Director  Rubenson,  of  the  Stockholm  Bolag,  was  less  pious. 
His  theory  was  that  the  System  "accustomed  the  working-man 
to  look  on  brandy  not  as  a  refreshing  drink  but  as  a  condiment 
for  food.  It  had  sought  to  give  the  serving  of  meals  a  domi- 
nating place  in  the  drink  business."  (3) 

This    was   handed   out   to   the    Stockholm    Congress,    where 

(1)  Bericht  ii.  d.   XI.   lut.  Kongress,  p.  353. 

(2)  Bericht  u.  d.   IX.   Kongress,   Bremen,   pp.  216-217. 

(3)  Bericht  u.  d.  XI.  Kongress,  Stoclsholm,  p.  346. 


14  THE  GOTHENBURG  SYSTEM 

the  visitors  had  an  opportunity  to  test  the  director's  affirmation. 
Dr.  Hercod  went  about  the  drink-shops,  and  reported  having 
seen  many  served  drink  without  food,  and  many,  obviously  in- 
toxicated, served  more  drink.  He  called  attention  to  "the  exces- 
sive tolerance"  which  allowed  the  sale  of  two  glasses  of  brandy 
(price  16  ore)  with  a  lunch  costing  10  ore  (less  than  three 
cents).  ^"  The  System's  monstrous  deal  of  sack,  with  its  pen- 
nyworth of  bread,  was  also  commented  on  by  Dr.  Eggers.  The 
"meal"  in  one  case  consisted  of  a  little  round  cake,  the  size 
of  a  peppermint  drop.  In  another  shop,  when  a  glass  of  milk 
was  asked  for,  the  barmaid  answered :  "Far  de  inte  vara  en  snaps 
i  stalle?"     (Can't  it  be  a  whisky  instead?)    "' 

It  may  be  well  to  stop  a  moment  to  consider  this  feature 
of  "meals,"  since  it  is  one  upon  which  advocates  of  the  Sys- 
tem delight  to  expatiate.  The  Temperance  Legislation  League, 
an  organization  seeking  to  make  sentiment  for  the  System  in 
Great  Britain,  declares  in  one  of  its  publications  ("Recent 
Criticisms  of  the  G.  S,."  p.  5,  2d  series)  that  "to  speak  of 
public-houses  is  to  mislead  the  reader.  "*  The  Swedish  v'drds- 
husen  are  really  restaurants  in  which  no  customer  can  pur- 
chase spirits  without  purchasing  food.  Nor  can  he  buy  more 
than  two  drams." 

In  the  first  place  we  would  explain  that  the  Gothenburg 
Bolag  Official  Reports  describe  the  drinking-places  as  krog- 
afdelningama,  which  is  the  nearest  equivalent  to  public-house 
that  one  can  find  in  Swedish ;  next  that  the  restriction  men- 
tioned is  of  a  recent  date.  Up  to  October,  1911,  one  could 
get  a  drink  of  cheap  brandy  without  food,  and  only  with  the 
second  drink  was  one  required  to  buy  (not  consume)  food  to 
the  value  of  6  ore  or  1.6  cents!  Even  this  regulation  dates 
only  from  February,  1908.  The  writer  went  about  Gothenburg 
after  reading  the   statement  of  the   Eriglish   writers  to  see  just 

(1)     Bericht  ii.  d.   XF.  Konsrress.  Stockholm,   p.  .346. 
'    (2)     Bericht  ii.  d.  XT.  Kouirress.  Stockholm,  np.  364  and  366. 

(3)     The    same    authors    elsewhere    ("The    Temperance    Problem," 
p.  Ill)  speak  of  the  Bolag  shops  as  public-houses. 


THE  GOTHENBURG   SYSTEM  15 

how  things  stood.  The  first  drinkshop  entered  was  the  show 
place,  Postgatan  14.  A  cup  of  coffee  was  ordered.  The  bar- 
tender makes  all  the  profit  on  such  soft  drinks  and  is,  there- 
fore, theoretically,  especially  interested  in  "pushing  their  sale." 
This  did  not  hinder  him  from  asking  if  "the  gentleman  wouldn't 
have  cognac  with  it."  The  gentleman  wouldn't.  He  sat  down 
and  watched  operations.  In  thirteen  minutes  five  men  entered, 
one  after  another,  marched  to  the  bar,  were  served  spirits, 
swallowed  them  quickly  and  went  out  without  smelling  food. 

One  can  buy  cognac,  whisky,  gin,  punch  and  any  other 
form  of  distilled  liquors  (save  the  cheap  brandy)  without  food. 
These  sales  are  not  inconsiderable.  The  entire  amount  of 
spirits  sold  by  the  glass  by  the  Gothenburg  Company  in  1910 
was  811,429  liters;  that  of  cheap  brandy,  442,080.  Much  of 
the  "better"  spirits  were  taken  with  food;  much  without.  It 
is  conceded  that  alcohol  taken  fasting  is  more  dangerous 
than  when  taken  with  food,  and  on  this  fact  rests,  presum- 
ably, the  theoretical  merit  of  this  feature  of  the  Bolag's  admin- 
istration. One  cannot  understand,  however,  why  other  forms 
of  spirits  are  exempted  from  this  regulation. 

Further,  the  flse  of  the  word  restaurant  is,  to  say  the  least, 
over-emphasis  when  applied  to  the  saloon  department.  The 
food  to  be  eaten  with  a  drink  constitutes  no  real  meal.  One 
is  as  well  handled,  if  not  better,  at  the  free-lunch  table  of  an 
American  saloon.  The  usual  "meal"  is  a  brimming  glass  of 
spirits,  a  boiled  egg  as  entr'  acte,  followed  by  a  second  glass 
of  spirits.  Or  perhaps  in  place  of  the  egg  is  a  spindling  sau- 
sage, with  a  dab  of  potato.  Such  a  "meal"  can  hardly  be  con- 
sidered a  physiological  life-belt  in  the  alcohol  torrent.  I 
noticed  that  in  many  cases  the  "meal"  was  further  pieced  out 
with  a  half-liter  of  beer.  Beer,  by  the  way,  can  be  bought 
without  taking  this  ethereal  dinner.  The  Gothenburg  Bolag, 
with  commendable  honesty,  published  in  its  annual  report  (p. 
13,  1910)  the  number  of  these  meals  which  are  served  with 
every  100  glasses  of  cheap  brandy.     In  1900  it  was  17;    in  1910 


16  THE   GOTHENBURG  SYSTEM 

it  had  risen  to  25.  The  Stockholm  Bolag  directors  themselves 
acknowledge  that  during  practically  its  whole  existence  the 
Bolag  saloon-department  "restaurant"  has  been  a  mere  mask. 
In  their  1909  report  (p.  1113)  they  state  that  during  the  year 
past  the  Bolag  has  transformed  the  saloon  department  to  "real 
restaurants."  But  another  supporter  of  the  Gothenburg  theory, 
Dr.  Bratt,  is  not  yet  satisfied.  In  his  (1911)  proposals  for 
future  reforms  he  would  not  allow  cheap  brandy  to  be  served 
"except  with  a  real  meal,  i.  e.,  with  at  least  50  ore's  worth  of 
food"  (14  cents'  worth).  "Brandy  without  food  is  to  be  looked 
upon  as  a  real  and  dangerous  poison.  In  this  way  one  would 
have  to  eat  in  many  places  and  much  before  one  could  be 
intoxicated,"  The  modesty  of  this  reform  proposal  is  a  pretty 
good  measure  of  the  bunkum  which  Gothenburg  enthusiasts 
have  been  dishing  out  for  a  generation  to  the  public.  Another 
incident  should  be  noticed  here.  In  1911  the  revisors  (t.  e., 
committee  of  the  city  government  which  audits  the  affairs  of 
the  Bolag)  requested  the  Bolag  management  to  set  out  fresh 
water  on  every  table  so  that  any  one  eating  might  not  feel 
obliged  to  take  intoxicating  drink  with  food.  Mr.  Rubenson 
replied  for  the  directors  that  "there  were  practical  difficulties 
which  made  this  impossible.''  "' 

(1)  Mr.  von  Koch  ealled  attention,  at  tbe  Stockholm  Anti-alcohol 
Cou>rress.  to  the  fact  that  the  restaurants  of  the  Stockholm  Bolag 
make  it  very  difficult  for  alcohol-free  restaurants  to  establish  them- 
selves. The  income  the  Bola^  drains  out  of  the  poor  in  its  saloon- 
sections  enables  it  to  sell  food  very  cheaply  in  its  restaurants.  The 
theory  of  the  System  is  that  drinkins:  men  are  restrained  from  drink- 
iii.er  too  much.  It  is  questionable  if  much  is  accomplished  in  this 
direction,  but  through  its  restaurants  it  makes,  according  to  Mr. 
Tornfelt,  "many,  many"  men  alcoholists.  "At  first  they  go  there  for 
food,  but  ai-e  soon  snared  in  the  alcohol  spider's  net.  When  they 
have  become  inoculated  with  the  taste  they  go  for  the  alcohol" 
("Verdandisten,"  No.  4.  1011).  For  this  reason  socialists  are  urging 
the  organization  of  co-operative  restaurants  to  make  unmarried  wage- 
workers  independent  of  System  restaurants.  There  are  in  Stockholm 
nine  alcohol-free  Automat  restaurants.  How  easy  it  would  have  been 
for  the  Stockholm  Bolag  with  its  great  income  to  have  covered  the 
city  with  such  places  where  men  could  get  meals  without  drink!  In 
six  Stockholm  market-places  are  milk  Automats,  which  are  greatly 
prized  by  wage-workers  selling  night  and  day  and,  in  winter,  warm 
milk.  But  they  are  operated  by  temperance  women.  The  Bolag  is 
too  busy  running  its  alcohol  business  "in  the  interest  of  morality" 
to  undertake  any  such  enterprises. 


THE  GOTHENBURG   SYSTEM  17 

I  talked  with  various  men  at  the  tables  as  to  the  enforce- 
ment of  the  regulation  limiting  the  amount  sold  to  two  glasses. 
Some  averred  that  it  was  only  necessary  to  step  outside  for 
a  few  minutes  and  to  come  in  again  to  get  a  second  serving. 
This  may  or  may  not  be  true.  Certainly  there  are  times  in  the 
day  when  it  would  be  difficult  in  the  crush  at  the  bar  to  detect 
a  second  application.  There  is,  however,  no  control  which 
can  hinder  a  man  from  going  from  shop  to  shop.  In  three 
minutes  one  is  at  another  drinking-place.  Thus,  Andralang- 
gatan  9  (Gothenburg),  for  example,  is  but  a  stone's  throw  from 
Andralanggatan  51. 

The  Socialist  paper  ''Verdandisten"  (February,  1912)  — 
the  Socialists  take  a  special  delight  in  letting  the  gas  out  of 
the  System — speaks  in  a  derisive  way  of  the  violation  of  this 
regulation.  "Numbers  of  bar-girls  (in  the  Stockholm  drink- 
shops)  serve  five  or  six  glasses  with  food  after  one  gets  a 
little  acquainted  with  them  and  when  they  see  that  the  coast 
is  clear.  The  more  accommodating  they  are  the  more  certain 
they  are  of  getting  tips  for  their  trouble.  One  saloon  (krog) 
where  these  violations  constitute  a  regular  system  is  that  in 
Drotthuset  in  Stadsgarden.  Every  coal-heaver  and  longshore- 
man knows  about  it.  Many  other  places  could  also  be  named, 
especially  the  few  where  there  is  no  controller  about.  .  .  . 
There  should  be  a  couple  of  hours  between  drinks  but  this 
rule  is  sinned  against  daily  and  hourly.  Indeed,  it  happens  not 
so  infrequently  that  a  person  simply  moves  from  one  table 
to  another  without  leaving  the  room  at  all." 

The  writer  adds  the  interesting  fact  that  notices  on  the 
walls  forbid  the  bar-tenders  "to  make  any  suggestion  as  to 
giving  tips.''  This  instead  of  a  straight  prohibition  of  tips ! 
The  rich  Stockholm  Company  pays  its  girl  bar-tenders  20 
kroner,  or  $5.50,  a  month  (with  board  and  room)  in  the  lower 
grade  drinking  places,  and  15  kroner,  or  $4.20,  a  month,  in  the 
restaurants !  "One  asks  with  astonishment  why  the  girls  are  worse 
paid   in  the  so-called  batter   department.     It   is   simply  because 


18  THE   GOTHENBURG   SYSTEM 

the  Bolag  calculates  that  the  public  will  piece  out  the  girls' 
pay  with  tips.  This  is  to  be  taken,  observes  the  writer  sar- 
castically, with  the  fact  that  the  bar-girls  in  the  saloon  depart- 
ment are  ordered  to  have  their  hair  combed  tight,  while  those 
in  the  upper  class  can  have  as  many  'rats'  in  it  as  they  wish. 
The  workingman's  morals  must  be  protected." 
■  In  that  extremely  able  little  Socialist  paper,  "Der  Abstinente 
Arbeiter,"  of  Berlin,  a  correspondent  remarks  (December  23, 
1911)  :  "The  bourgeois  cannot  think  of  the  proletariat  as  a 
mighty  forward-moving  struggler,  animated  by  his  own  ideals. 
For  him  he  is  a  human  being  who  lives  in  misery  and  will 
abide  in  it  unless  the  bourgeois  come  to  his  help  and  draw 
him  out  of  it."  This  spirit  of  patronage  and  of  tutelage  is 
everywhere  apparent  in  the  Gothenburg  System.  The  System 
is  a  characteristic  institution  of  the  happily  fading  nineteenth 
century  liberalism.  The  more  radical  the  democratic  move- 
ment in  Scandinavia  becomes,  the  more  vigorous  its  anti-alco- 
holism. The  Norwegian  Social  Democracy  has  now  joined 
that  of  Sweden  and  Finland  in  making  prohibition  a  party 
program  point,  although  this  step  has  meant  the  retirement 
of  two  of  its  most  valued  leaders.  The  Young  Socialists,  who 
are  largely  syndicalists  and  determined  to  force  the  pace  of 
proletarian  advance,  are  the  strongest  anti-alcoholists.  One 
can  imagine  what  Traenmel,  Jensen  and  their  followers  would 
say  of  the  calculation — in  the  spirit  of  the  blessed  Lafitte — 
which  is  stuck  away  in  fine  print  with  other  notices  behind 
a  glass  frame,  high  on  the  walls  of  the  Gothenburg  drinking- 
places.  The  "workingman"  is  informed  that,  if  he  gives  up 
drinking  one  glass  of  potato  brandy  daily,  he  will  save  in  'the 
•course  of  the  year  29.7  kroner;  two  glasses,  59.4  kr.,  and  three 
glasses,  89.1  kr.  This  in  25  years  will  amount  to  2,763  kr.  51 
ore,  which  will,  with  interest  properly  compounded,  bring  in  a 
life  rent  of  167.64  kr.  All  very  well,  no  doubt,  and  important, 
for  a  will-less,  psychopathic  alcoholist  to  know.    But  could  any- 


THE   GOTHENBURG   SYSTEM  19 

thing  illustrate  better  the  essentially  burgher  spirit  of  the  Goth- 
enburg directors? 

The  contrast  between  what  rich  "liberals"  would  do  for 
the  people  and  what  democracy  does  for  itself,  comes  out  when 
one  compares  the  six  lounging-rooms  established  by  the  Bolag 
in  Gothenburg  with,  for  example,  the  great  People's  House  in 
Zurich.  In  the  one  case  we  have  "almshouse  physiognomy" — 
a  table  or  two,  wooden  seats,  a  few  newspapers  scattered 
about,  and  400  books  locked  in  a  walnut  bookcase.  "*  One  is 
indeed  out  of  the  rain.  But  how  different  the  artistic  warmth 
and  attractiveness,  the  freedom  and  opportunity  of  the  Zurich 
people's  centre !  Dr.  Laquer  speaks  of  "the  asserted  relation 
of  the  Gothenburg  System  to  the  intellectual  activity  of  the 
laboring  class  in  that  city"  (p.  16,  "Gotenburger  System  und 
Alkoholismus").  If  that  assertion  were  ever  made  it  was 
made  for  export.  Certainly  no  Swede  would  listen  to  it  with 
a  straight  face.  In  1905  the  average  daily  visit  to  each  waiting- 
room  was  181  in  a  total  of  13,500  laborers.  The  Bolag  in 
Gothenburg  has  had  money  enough  at  its  disposal  to  have 
built  the  most  aesthetic  and  ample  quarters  for  the  people's  use. 
Its  annual  net  income  has  risen  steadily — from  50,782  kr.  in 
1865  to  1,387,520  kr.  in  1910. 

Lest  these  judgments  of  "disinterested  management"  in 
practise  should  seem  unduly  harsh  we  would  refer  to  Dr. 
Laquer's  above-mentioned  "Gotenburger  System  und  Alkohol- 
ismus." Dr.  Laquer  is  not  unfriendly  to  the  System;  neither 
does  he  show  any  enthusiasm  for  it.  As  far  as  Germany  is 
concerned  he  concludes  that  "it  is  not  the  Hercules  required 
to  cleanse  the  Augias  stable"  (p,  54).  Among  the  good  points 
which  he  mentions  is  the  fact  that  drink-selling  is  "taken  out 
of  the  hands  of  an  asocial  class  and  placed  in  that  of  a  higher 
and    philanthropic    class"    (the    alcohol    Jacobins,    so    to    speak. 


(1)  Rowntreo  and  Sherwell.  p.  Ill  :  "They  are  used  in  combat- 
ing intemperance  througli  satisf.vinpr  to  some  extent  the  craving  for 
recreation  apart  from  the  public-house."     But  to  what  extent,  pray? 


20  THE   GOTHENBURG  SYSTEM 

being  replaced  by  loftier-minded  alcohol-selling  Girondists)."' 
In  view  of  the  general  history  of  the  Scandinavian  companies 
one  is  permitted  to  question  the  importance  of  this  fact.  ''It 
has  raised  the  ethical-aesthetic  level  9f  spirits-selling.''  "The 
drinkshops  do  not  draw  attention  by  signs."  This  last  is 
true.  *■*  In  external  appearance  the  System  shops  are  far  more 
decent  than  American  saloons.  Within  they  vary  as  saloons 
vary.  Of  the  Norwegian  Samlags  he  says:  "They  have  a 
melancholy  appearance.  Abandon  hope  all  ye  who  enter  here." 
He  further  remarks  that  the  System  has  done  away  with  many 
of  the  abuses  which  accompany  private  competition,  meaning 
probably  selling  to  minors,  on  credit,  etc.  "On  the  other  hand 
it  has  only  moderately  affected  the  sale  of  brandy  in  the  cities, 
has  favored  home-drinking  and  only  slightly  lessened  the  num- 
ber of  deaths  from  alcoholism,  of  alcohol  insanities,  alcohol 
crii|ie  and  pauperism"  (p.  31).  "The  majority  of  the  Bolag's 
shops  give  the  impression  of  places  for  supplying  the  alcohol 
needs  of  the  lower  proletariatized  strata  of  wage-workers.     Be- 

(1)  "Verdandisten"  (July  25.  1912)  mentions  the  repulsive  fact 
that  hardly  a  Bolag  can  be  found  on  the  directorate  of  which  there 
does  not  sit  a  member  who  is  at  the  same  time  a  member  of  the 
local  State  Church  council.  And  to  be  elected  to  such  a  position 
one  must  be  known  as  "God-fearing  and  zealous."  John  Brijrht's 
sneer  at  the  English  State  Church  as  standing  for  "religious  educa- 
tion and  delirium  tremens"  clearly  has  its  application  elsewhere. 
On  the  20th  of  February.  1901,  a  Congress  of  repre.sentatives  of  the 
Swedish  Bolags  met  in  Stockholm.  Mr.  Bagge.  o-f  Jfinkoping.  in  a 
speech  said:  "We  are  assembled  in  a  patriotic  enterprise  and  hope 
that,  with  God's  help,  the  fruit  of  our  work  will  be  to  the  blessing 
of  our  land  and  of  many  of  its  people." 

(2)  Although  the  banishment  of  signs  has  practically  no  effect 
on  alcohol  consumption  it  heightens  immensely  the  impression  of  a 
city's  alcohol^  decency.  The  predisposed  observer  who  visits  a  Swed- 
ish city  is  given  a  favorable  feeling  in  this  way  which  he  perhaps 
does  not  stop  to  analyze.  There  can  be  little  doubt,  either,  that  the 
extraordinarily  high  general  culture  of  Sweden  also  unconsciously 
prejudices  the  stranger  in  the  System's  favor.  He  comes  from  a 
dirt-choked,  Irish-administered  American  city,  or  from  the  drizzle 
and  rags  and  cheerlessness  of  an  English  manufacturing  town  to 
Gothenburg,  with  its  imma^i'ulately  clean,  granite-paved  streets,  its 
high  skies  and  sunshine,  its  self-respecting,  well-dressed  people. 
He  is  naturally  drawn  to  all  things  Swedish,  and  the  Bolag  comes 
In  for  an  unjustifiable  share  in  this  vague  general  feeling  of  satis- 
faction. 


THE  GOTHENBURG  SYSTEM  21 

sides  this  class  there  is  one  other  which  frequents  the  places — 
the  incurable  alcohoh'sts,  the  riff-raff  of  the  large  towns,  mostly 
neuropathic,  sick  and  degenerate  men." 

Messrs.  Rowntree  and  Sherwell's  organ  ("Monthly  Notes," 
March,  1912,  p.  3)  asks  plaintively:  "Is  it  suggested  that  a 
substantial  diminution  of  the  sale  of  cheap  brandy  has  not  taken 
place  in  Gothenburg  and  Stockholm?"  To  this  we  would  reply, 
Is  it  suggested  that  the  per-capita  sale  of  cheap  brandy  in 
Sweden,  as  a  whole,  has  ever  fallen  again  to  the  record  low 
point  (4  liters)  of  1860,  five  years  before  the  Gothenburg-  Bo- 
lag  started  operations?  The  Gothenburg  Bolag  report  for  1910 
states  that  the  sale  of  all  spirits  in  the  Bolag-operated  shops 
in  1875  (statistics  given  first  in  this  year)  amounted  to  1,646,740 
liters;  in  1910,  to  2,064,138.  The  rise  in  bar  sales,  where 
restrictions  are  in  operation,  was  from  260,836  liters  in  1865 
to  811,429  in  1910.  This  rise  in  gross  sales  represents,  as  the 
city  has  grown,  a  fall  in  per-capita  sale  from  27.45  liters  (1875) 
to  12.62  (1910).  In  Stockholm  the  Bolag  gross  sales  were 
4,077,590  in  1877  and  4,904,446  in  1911.  Here,  too,  the  per- 
capita  sale  has  fallen  (from  26.56  in  1877  to  14.27  in  1911), 
but  it  should  be  remembered  that  during  the  first  half  only 
of  the  Bolag's  existence  has  this  per-capita  fall  to  be  regis- 
tered. During  the  second  half  sales  have  remained  stationary 
at  a  point  about  double  the  per-capita  sale  of  Sweden  as  a 
whole.  Further  it  should  be  noted  that  there  is  a  steady  rise 
in  spirit  sales  in  the  drinkshops  to  which  the  Bolag  has  sublet 
the  right  of  selling,  from  2,515,973  liters  in  1895  (the  first  year 
in  which  figures  are  given  in  the  Stockholm  report)  to  3,300,- 
935  liters  in  1909,  and  that  the  consumption  of  privately  sold 
beer  has  increased  by  leaps  and  bounds.  (In  Sweden  at  large 
this  rise  was  from  8.3  liters  per  capita  in  1861-70  to  26  liters 
in  1896-1905.  But  in  the  larger  cities  it  must  have  been  far 
greater.)  These  facts  indicate  not  that,  thanks  to  the  Bolag, 
the  drinking  people  of  Stockholm  and  Gothenburg  are  drink- 
ing less   than    formerly,   but   that    they   are    drinking   elsewhere 


22  THE  GOTHENBURG  SYSTEM 

and  other  liquors.  But  even  if  a  per-capita  decline  in  entire 
alcohol  consumption  could  be  proved,  there  would  be  no 
especial  reason  to  attribute  this  to  the  BoTag's  trivial  regula- 
tions, or  at  least  to  those  regulations  peculiar  to  the  Bolag. 
Sunday-closing,  for  example,  which  is  partial  prohibition,  has 
apparently  helped  to  cut  down  consumption  in  Gothenburg,  as 
the  drunkenness  arrests  for  that  day  in  1910  were  but  590,  as 
compared  to  2,613,  for  Saturday,  a  day  in  which  Bolag  restric- 
tions run  full  blast.  It  is  monstrous  to  assume,  in  using  these 
per-capita  statistics,  that  the  ratio  of  abstainers  and  drinkers 
in  these  two  cities  is  the  same  as  in  1865  in  spite  of  the  wide- 
spread development  of  temperance  organizations,  the  revolu- 
tionary transformation  of  the  wage-working  class  by  the  labor 
movement,  and  the  general  advance  in  culture. "'  In  view  of 
the  great  number  of  abstainers  in  Swedish  cities  (including 
the  women)  the  consumption  of  spirits  by  the  balance  of  the 
population  must,  indeed,  be  frightfully  great.  Another  thing, 
too,  should  not  be  forgotten.  The  restrictions,  such  as  they 
are,  on  the  sale  of  spirits  on  draught,  may  have  simply  thrown 
the  incidence  of  consumption  on  the  bottle  trade.  In  1874  the 
cheap  spirits  bottle  trade  in  Gothenburg  was,  per  capita,  about 

(1)  The  Summary  of  the  Quinquenuial  Reports  of  the  Govern- 
ors, 1901-05  ("Sammandrag  af  Kung.  Ms.  Befalluiu^'shafvaudes 
Femarsberattelser  for  Aren  1901-05"),  p.  22,  one  of  the  most  import- 
ant of  Swedish  official  documents,  confirms  this  general  line  of 
argument.  It  affirms  that  the  number  of  convictions  for  drunken- 
ness in  Sweden  in  1905  constituted  83.85^  of  all  court  convictions, 
and  then  goes  on  to  say.  "While  the  spirits  consumption  per  capita 
has  on  the  whole  fallen,  convictions  for  drunkenness  have  increased 
enormously  (from  8.726  yearly  in  1866-70  to  42,833  yearly  in  1901-05). 
It  is  probable  that  the  number  af  non-consumers  of  spirits  has 
grown,  thanks  to  _the  temperance  movement,  in  later  years  power- 
fully, in  comparison  with  the  consuming  number,  which  may  even 
have  diminished.  A  development  of  this  type  could  also  be  a  natural 
result  of  the  concentration  of  the  sale  of  spirits  in  the  cities,  which 
makes  it  all  the  more  difficult  for  people  in  remote  country  districts 
to  provide  themselves  with  drink.  So  if  the  consumption  of  spirits, 
reckoned  per  head  of  the  whole  population,  has  shown  a  tendency 
to  diminution,  it  is  probable  that,  reckoned  only  on  the  basis  of  the 
consuming  part  of  the  population,  it  would  show  an  increase,  and 
this  it  is  Mhich,  in  a  certain  degree,  can  have  called  forth  the  in- 
crease in  drunkenness."     In  other  words,  prohibition  in  the  country 


THE   GOTHENBURG  SYSTEM  23 

a  third  more  than  the  bar  trade;  in  1910  it  was  more  than 
double  ("Gothenburg  Bolag  Report,"  1910,  p.  8).  The  Report 
of  the  Christiania  Samlag  for  1895  (p.  21)  remarks  justly: 
"It  is  obvious  that  it  is  easier  to  prevent  excess  in  drinking 
when  drink  is  consumed  on  the  spot  than  when  it  is  delivered 
for  home  consumption."  And  the  Stockholm  Bolag  Report,  1910 
(p.  1204),  declares  that  "the  frightful  number  of  drunks  in  the 
city  are  due,  in  a  very  great  degree,  to  the  Bolag's  bottled 
spirits.  Everybody '  knows  that  the  most  degraded  drinker  can 
easily  get  unlimited  amounts  of  cheap  brandy  from  the  Bolag's 
bottle  department."     That  statement  is  official! 

Dr.  Laquer  estimates  the  spirits  consumption  of  the  aver- 
age German  wage-worker  at  3  glasses  of  schnaps  daily.  The 
Bolags  of  all  the  Swedish  cities  in  which,  in  1900,  1,104,000 
persons  lived  (21.5%  of  Sweden's  population)  consumed 
23,161,015  liters  of  spirits  in  12  months  (1902-3)  or  21  liters  per 
person.  This  would  mean,  reckoning  the  male  adult  popula- 
tion at  295,000,  a  consumption  of  300  gr.,  or  6  glasses  of  spirits 
per  man  and  work-day,  excluding  all  consumption  of  beer 
(p.  21). 

Laquer  flatly  denies  that  the  System  has  had  any  influence 
at    all    on    alcohol-caused    crime    (p.    26).      The    proportion    of 

and  tlie  growth  of  the  al>staiuing  fraction  of  the  population,  and 
not  tite  Gothenburg  System,  have  been  the  determining  factors  in 
■  the  Swedish  alcohol  situation.  On  page  23  af  the  same  report  we 
get  this  instructive  fact:  "Criminality  is,  in  relation  to  population, 
enormously  greater  in  the  cities  than  in  the  country.  In  1905  there 
were  convictions  (per  100,000  of  the  population)  in  Stockholm,  4.480; 
In  all  other  cities  together,  3,445,  and  in  all  country  districts,  132." 
Recall  that  83.8%  of  Swedish  convictions  were  for  drunkenness  and 
you  can  realize  what  prohibition  has  done  .for  the  Swedish  country 
districts. 

One  incident  in  the  report  (p.  20)  is  worth  reproducing.  There 
had  been  much  illicit  sale  of  drink  in  Vasterbotten  and  Norrbotteu 
provinces,  and  to  end  this  it  was  thought  best  to  open  places  for 
legal  sale  In  Jockmock  and  Giillivare.  "Since  they  seemed  to  cause 
a  greater  consumption  of  spirits  in  the  Lappmark,  however,,  than 
they  should,  they  were  suppressed  at  the  end  of  three  years.  By 
means  of  a  new  law  forbidding  transmission  of  spirits  through  the 
mails  and  a  vigorous  conviction  of  illicit  sellers  a  considerable  reduc- 
tion of  consumption  of  spirits  has  been  brought  about  in  these 
provinces  and  especially  in  their  Lappmarks." 


24  THE  GOTHENBURG  SYSTEM 

those  condemned  to  prison  whose  crime  was  committed  when 
intoxicated,  does  not  vary  essentially  from  that  elsewhere. 
As  to  the  number  of  cases  of  alcoholism  treated  in  Gothen- 
burg hospitals,  he  points  out  that  this  has  steadily  risen  (from 
55  in  1888  to  139  in  1905— per  thousand  from  .58  to  1.01)/" 
He  compares  this  with  an  alcoholized  part  of  Bremen  to  the 
lattcr's  favor  (p.  11)."'  Various  abuses  are  mentioned  as  jockey- 
ing with  the  size  of  glasses,  which  in  the  course  of  the  year 
would  bring  in  snug  sums  to  the  sellers,  the  selling  of  beer 
in  some  Samlags  below  the  price  of  mineral  water,  the  planting 
of  drink-shops  right  in  the  path  of  wage-workers — a  distinct 
abuse.  These  '"restaurants"  are  not  placed  in  the  "West- 
ends.'*  "*  He  also  remarks  on  the  all  too  human  cliques  and 
cousinly   friendships   in   Bolag  administrative  circles. 

"The  System  enlists  the  active  co-operation  of  good  citi- 
zens. .  .  .  Should  a  manager  for  any  cause  fail  to  carry 
out  the  by-laws  of  the  Company  his  dismissal  can  be  instantly 
effected."  So  affirm  the  theorists  (Rowntree  and  Sherwell, 
'Temperance  Reform,"  pp.  109  and  127,  abridged  edition). 
Wihen  a  competent  witness,  Mr.  Ulrich,  of  Saeter.  refutes  this 
he  is  given  an  insulting  name  ("Recent  Criticisms  of  the  Goth- 
enburg System,"  2d  series,  p.  7)  and  declared  *'to  represent  no 
large  body  of  opinion."  In  "Verdandisten"  (series  of  ai ti- 
des in  1911  and  1912)  there  is  a  fulness  of  evidence  from  this 
capable  observer.  He  says  that  practically  everywhere  through- 
CD  It  must  be  notpd  in  justice  to  the  System  that  the  num- 
ber has  fallen  since  IDOo  again  to  102,  or  .62  to  the  1,000. 

(2)  Mr.  LIndman.  Minister  of  State,  formerly  lived  on  Master 
Snrauelsi;atan  in  Stockholm,  in  the  neighborhood  of  a  Gothenburg 
drink-shop.  There  were  always  the  same  fights  inside  and  out- 
side; always  drunken  persons  making  the  streets  unpleasant  to 
passers."  The  Minister  appealed  to  the  System  directors  "either  to 
close  the  place  or  to  more  it."  They  moved  it.  ("Yerdandisten." 
1911,  No.  4.)  Does  any  one  think  the  shop  would  have  been  moved 
If  the  appeal  had  come  from  an  honest  bricklayer  trying  to  bring 
np  his  family  in  decency?  On  the  2d  of  April.  1911.  a  meeting  was 
held  in  the  Kungsholm  church,  at  which  Prof.  Santesson  spoke,  to 
protest  against  niorinir  the  Company  saloon  from  Scheelegatan  to 
the  corner  of  Hantvarkaregatan  and  Pipersgatan,  a  point  with 
vastly  more  traflflc  and  in  the  neighborhood  of  a  school  and  hospital. 


THE   GOTHENBURG  SYSTEM  25 

out  the  country  drinking  people  can  get  orders  filled.  The 
Bolag  shops  are  not  better  than  private  ones  in  this  respect. 
Directors  carry  on  the  business  without  regard  to  existing  law. 
Bottled  goods  are  sold  to  minors,  both  boys  and  girls.  In 
describing  a  Saturday  and  Sunday  round  of  the  drink-shops  he 
discovers  all  manner  of  violations — selling  drinks  in  the  bottle 
department,  selling  less  than  a  liter  in  this  department,  not 
having  prepared  food  on  hand,,  etc.  There  is,  he  says,  almost 
a  silent  understanding,  a  freemasonry,  between  drink-sellers 
and  authorities.  While  the  intoxicated  are  treated  with  utmost 
severity  and  sent  to  hard  labor  those  who  get  them  drunk 
contrary  to  law  are  rarely  punished.  In  1910,  in  Stockholm, 
1,174  arrested  persons  acknowledged  that  they  had  become 
intoxicated  in  Bolag  retail  shops.  The  law  provides  for  the 
fining  of  the  sellers  in  every  such  case,  but  these  fines  are 
almost  never  assessed.  Mr.  Ulricji  urges  the  labor  unions  to 
prosecute  the  System  employees  every  time  they  get  a  man 
drunk.  "The  wage-workers  should  show  as  much  solidarity 
in  such  cases  as  during  a  strike.  The  drink-sellers  would  not 
then  drive  their  business  so  saucily  and  so  illegally." 

"The  political  power  of  the  distiller  is  a  thing  of  the  past" 
(Rowntree  and  Sherwell,  p.  125).  We  have  no  special  reason 
to  believe  this.  It  is  stated  in  "Verdandisten"  (August  3,  1911) 
that  the  Conservative  party  in  the  1911  elections  was  in  many 
ways  financed  by  the  distillers  and  brewers.  In  February,  1911, 
there  was  a  conference  of  the  drink  interests  in  Stockholm. 
A  petition  to  the  government  was  drawn  up  for  longer  hours 
of  drink-selHng  on  Sunday,  for  lightening  certain  penalties  for 
law-violation,  for  limitation  of  the  powers  of  the  authorities 
to  suppress  licenses,  for  the  requiring  of  a  two-thirds  majority 
instead  of  a  bare  majority  in  town  councils  for  closing  drink- 
shops.  Confidential  representatives  of  the  Gothenburg  System 
took  part  in  the  conference  and  hacked  the  spirits  interests. 
Prof.  Santesson  says  ("Strodda  Tankar  i  Alkoholfragan,"  p. 
27)  :    'The  alcohol  interests  in  Sweden  work  in  silence  through 


26  THE   GOTHENBURG  SYSTEM 

a  part  of  the  press  or  otherwise  to  check  the  temperance  party's 
efforts  in  legislation  on  social  lines.  One  does  not  come  on 
these  people  directly,  but  one  suspects  their  presence  on  all 
sides  as  a  cause  of  the  tough  resistance  which  reforms  meet 
that  are  calculated  to  forward  temperance  effort."  And  Dr. 
Helenius,  in  his  paper  at  the  1911  Anti-alcohol  Congress  at 
'The  Hague,  asserted  that  in  Finland  the  shareholders  in  brew- 
eries and  distilleries  and  their  numerous  friends  do  all  in  their 
power  to  keep  the  System  saloons  open,  because  the  winnings 
in  the  last  analysis  flow  into  their  pockets.  The  Central  Com- 
mittee of  the  System  in  Finland  distributed  among'  the  mem- 
bers of  the  Finnish  Landtag  a  brochure  urging  them  to  help 
that  the  consumption  of  spirits  should  not  fall  further  and  thus 
diminish  the  charity  moneys  of  the  cities.  They  would  con- 
tinue stealing  leather,  after  the  fashion  of  St.  Crispin,  in  order 
to  make  shoes  for  the  poor. 

The  fear  of  prohibition  is  the  beginning  of  alcohol  wisdom 
in  Sweden  as  elsewhere.  The  first  Swedish  Bolag  ever  formed 
was  that  in  Falun.  In  the  latter  part  of  1911  (that  is,  only 
after  more  than  50  years  of  existence)  its  managers  hit  on  the 
in  no  way  radical  idea  of  refusing  sale  to  recognized  drunkards. 
The  Sundsvall  Bolag  has  followed  suit,  cutting  off  forty  per- 
sons, and  that  of  Kristinehamn  is  also  to  stop  sale  "to  those 
who  have  been  sentenced  many  times  for  drunkenness."  As 
far  as  we  know  these  are  the  only  Bolags  to  take  this  step, 
and  the  motive  which  has  driven  them  to  it  is  obvious  enough. 
Dr.   Eggers, "'  who  calls  himself  a  disciple  of  Rowntree,  says 


(1)  Dr.  Eggers  contends  that  State  prohibition  was  introduced 
some  centuries  too  early  (in  the  U.  S,).  because  the  power  of  the 
alcohol  capital  was  not  first  broken  (by  disinterested  management). 
His  information  comes  presumably  from  Rowntree  and  Sherwell  who, 
in  .32  pages,  count  up  well-nigh  every  druggist  selling  whisky 
surreptitiously  in  American  prohibition  States,  but  can  find  no  room 
for  the  absolutely  capital  fact  that  State  prohibition  is  successful 
ii»  annihilating  thp  whole  alcohol  manufacture.  One  can  hardly 
consider  this  omission  unintentional.  There  are  other  things,  too, 
which  seem  to  indicate  that  Rowntree  and  Sherwell  are  at  least  as 
much  interested  in  blocking  prohibition   as  in  introducing  Company 


THE  GOTHENBURG   SYSTEM  27 

("Der  Abstinent,"  June  1,  1911)  :  "I  believe  in  gradual  devel- 
opment, I  assume  more  than  one  hundred  years  to  the  final 
introduction  (of  disinterested  management).  I  am  always 
astonished  when  men  want  to  take  the  second  step  before  the 
first.''  This  spirit  of  deliberation  is  practically  illustrated  in 
Sweden.  One  is  not  surprised  that  the  drink  interests  are  not 
disturbed  by  it,  but  that  on  the  contrary  they  should  place 
paid  advertisements  (beer,  cognac,  champagne)  in  "Gasthaus- 
Reform,"  the  organ  of  "disinterested-management"  propaganda 
in  Germany   ("Die  Abstinenz,"  April,  1912).*'^ 

In  Rowntree  and  Sherwell  one  gets  the  fagade  of  the  Sys- 
tem, and  fine,  indeed,  it  appears.  But  one  should  go  around 
to  the  back  of  the  house.  Read,  for  example,  in  Mr.  David- 
son's "Samlagkamp  og  Folkedom,"  1912  (pp.  17-19),  how  the 
Samlag  party  jockeyed  the  people  of  Honcfos  out  of  the  elec- 
tion result  in  1907  whfen  the  Samlag  was  voted  down  by  539 
to  523.     The  way  in  which  doubtful   irregularities  were  proved 

control,  the  fact,  for  example,  that  they  selected  just  this  carica- 
ture "study"  of  prohibition  for  special  cheap  distribution  rather 
than  their  Gothenburg  chapter. 

If  one  wishes  to  test  further  their  uncritical  book  one  should 
compare,  for  example,  the  chapter  on  the  Russian  monopoly  with 
Levin's  "Das  Branntweinmonopol  in  Russlaud."  The  English  writ- 
ers affirm  that  this  experiment  "has  been  entered  into  with  an  honeat 
intention  of  lessening  intemperance."  Levin  shows  that  it  was 
undertaken  simply  because  the  excise  taxing  of  spirits  had  been 
carried  to  a  point  where  cousumpticn  was  checked  so  that  some  more 
effective  way  of  bleeding  the  people  had  to  be  devised.  Witte 
chose  just  those  four  governments  where  alcohol  consumption  was 
lowest  for  experiment,  and  when  he  found  that  the  consumption 
there  steadily  rose,  extended  the  new  system  to  Russia  at  large. 
Of  course,  there  is  an  alcohol  tij?-leaf,  as  there  is  in  Gothenburg, 
but  it  represents  mere  hypocrisy.  The  Monopoly  income  has  risen 
steadily  until  in  1911  it  reached  782,557,370  rubles.  Russia's  sor- 
row has  advanced  pari  passu. 

Messrs.  Rowntree  and  Sherwell  print  six  pages  of  extravagant 
eulogy  of  their  book  from  various  deans  and  dons.  Doubtless  there 
is  much  of  value  in  those  sections  which  have  to  do  with  the  situa- 
tion in  England.  On  the  other  hand,  there  is  little  indication  of 
acquaintance  with  the  Continental  literature  of  the  drink  problem. 
What  can  we  say,  for  example,  of  writers  who  describe  the  Inter- 
national Anti-alcohol  Congresses  indiscriminately  as  Temperance  and 
Alcoholic   (!)    Congresses    (pp.   110  and   120)? 

(2)  German  Gothenburgers  have  a  model  tavern  at  Marcands- 
moor,  in  E.  Frisi:u  The  barmaid  is  also  midwife  for  the  place  and 
gives  newly  confirmed  girls  instruction  in  cooking.     How  idyllic! 


28  THE  GOTHENBURG  SYSTEM 

and  another  election,  together  with  a  reversed  majority  of  87, 
secured  reads  marvelously  like  a  page  out  of  American  saloon 
politics.  Mr.  Davidson  also  calls  attention  to  the  fact  that 
Samlags  in  Stathelle  and  Holen  (the  last  a  place  of  only  167 
inhabitants)  were  established  as  pure  speculations  in  order  to 
sell  in  neighboring  towns  whence  the  Samlag  had  been  ban- 
ished. The  author  affirms,  indeed,  that  "the  Samlag  repre- 
sented, for  its  time,  a  great  progress,"  but  adds,  "It  has  far 
from  answered  to  the  hopes  raised  by  its  introduction,  and 
the  advantages  which  it  has  actually  brought  with  it  have 
been  dearly  paid  for  in  many  ways  by  disadvantages.  After 
forty  years  it  has  developed  so  many  and  so  great  weaknesses 
that  the  time  may  be  considered  ripe  to  supplant  it  by  an 
arrangement  better  suited  for  the  new  day."  He  affirms  that 
a  feeling,  very  wide-spread  even  outside  the  temperance  party, 
finds  expression  in  Burgomaster  Berner's  words :  "The  Sam- 
lag has  been  a  disappointment  to  me.  We  must  go  on  to  local 
prohibition  by  voting  it  out."  Beside  this  confession  of  an  old 
Samlag  partisan  we  may  perhaps  be  allowed  to  place  the 
recent  utterance  of  Prof.  Thyren,  who,  as  Mr.  Berner,  is  not 
an  abstainer:  "No  peace  is  possible  before  absolute  alcohol 
prohibition  is  carried.''  Indeed,  one  could,  in  the  light  of  a 
passage  in  the  Gothenburg  Bolag  report  for  1909  (p.  32-3),  go 
a  step  farther  and  ask  if  the  Bolag  people  themselves  really 
believe  in  the  value  of  the  System.  The  proposal  was  made  to 
place  under  the  Bolag  various  shops  where  higher-grade  spirits 
were  sold  by  private  persons.  It  was  rejected  by  both  the 
directorate  of  the  Bolag  and  the  city  revisors.  These  last 
alleged  that  "if  the  Bolag  should  take  over  these  licenses  the 
entire  trade  in  spirits  would  be  monopolized,  which  would  be 
of  no  value  to  genuine  temperance  activity  or  to  the  city's 
economic  interests,  and  of  doubtful  value  to  the  consuming 
public,  but  a  decided  injury  to  private  interests  hitherto  con- 
sidered legal." 

Nothing   scientific   has  yet   been   written   in    English   on   the 


THE   GOTHENBURG  SYSTEM  29 

Gothenburg  System.  We  are,  at  present,  unable  to  make  a 
first-hand  study  of  the  sources,  but  have  attempted  to  glean 
whatever  can  be  found  in  the  Scandinavian  literature  of  the 
subject.  A  book  of  some  importance,  written  by  a^  committee 
of  the  Swedish  Medical  Society  and  entitled  "Alkoholen  och 
Samhallet  (Alcohol  and  Society)  has  just  reached  us  from 
Stockholm.  Its  obvious  purpose  is  to  sidetrack  the  Swedish 
prohibition  movement.  It  represents  the  extreme  opinions  of 
the  "moderate"  position,  describes  the  Committee  of  Fifty  as 
"impartial  and  warmly  interested  in  temperance,"  actually  sets 
a  higher  value  on  Miss  Elderton's  studies  than  on  those  of 
von  Bunge  and  of  Laitinen,  and  describes  Rowntree  and  Sher- 
well's  "Temperance  Reform"  as  "a  standard  work."  Like  other 
"moderates"  the  writers  exhibit  an  air,  at  least,  of  meticulous 
objectivity.  "Thus,  in  order  that  one  may  not  get  a  too  bad 
idea  of  the  misery  resulting  from  a  father's  alcoholism,  they 
tell  us  that  this  "can  develop  (in  wife  and  children)  self-con- 
trol, mutual  love,  diligence  and  good  habits.'  It  is  from  just 
such  typically  academic  minds  that  one  would  expect  a  eulogy 
of  the  Gothenburg  System,  but  from  cover  to  cover  there  is 
scarce  a  word  in  its  praise.  They  are  writing  for  a  public 
that  has  gone  to  bed  and  gotten  up  with  the  System  during  a 
half-century. 

Nearly  half  of  the  volume  is  occupied  with  casuistic  mate- 
rial, summarized  alcoholist  biographies,  "illustrative  of  the  more 
important  practical  sides  of  the  alcohol  question."  They  also 
illustrate,  in  the  writer's  judgment  brilliantly  illustrate,  the  im- 
pertinence of  the  assertion  that  the  Swedish  Company  System 
has,  in  any  degree,  solved  the  alcohol  problem  for  the  Swedish 
people.  I  find  in  these  176  pages  six  allusions  to  the  System. 
On  p.  237  there  is  a  long  description  of  a  hopeless  alcoholist 
which  ends  with  the  sentence,  "One  sees  him  often  loafing  in 
the  neighborhood  of  the  Gothenburg  System  salesroom."  On 
p.  249  a  drinker  complains  that  "one  can't  get  svagdricka 
(alcohol-weak  beer)   at  the  Gothenburg  System"    (so  that  one 


30  THE   GOTHENBURG  SYSTEM 

is  compelled  to  drink  stronger  liquor).  On  p.  270  a  drunkard 
says,  "Before  the  Gothenburg  System  it  was  not  dangerous 
One  took  several  drinks  a  day  and  was  done  with  it";  and  on 
p.  271  another  drunkard  remarks,  "Before  the  Gothenburg 
System  there  was  rarely  so  much  drunk."  On  p.  273  another 
drunkard  says,  "When  the  Gothenburg  System,  with  its  liter 
sale,  began  its  activity,  things  went  straight  to  the  woods  with 
me"  (a  figure  apparently  for  a  descensus  Averni).  On  p.  300 
an  alcoholist  who  became  insane  said  that  "in  1902  he  was  hired 
as  a  machinist  by  the  System  shop  on  Malartorget.  He  him- 
self thought  that  this  was  the  cause  which  led  him  to  misuse 
spirits.  He  began  to  go  to  the  saloons  early  in  the  morning, 
and  by  11  o'clock  could  be  full.  He  drank  at  least  a  liter  a 
day,  besides  beer,  and  by  evening  could  not  take  his  clothes  off, 
but  slept  in  them." 

This  is  a  complete  list  of  the  allusions  to  the  System  in 
the  second  half  of  "Alkoholen  och  Samhallet."  Comment  is 
superfluous. 

As  to  the  prevalence  of  alcoholism  in  Swedish  cities  the 
writers  present  much  evidence.  P.  22:  "The  degrading  influ- 
ence of  our  drinking  customs  can  hardly  be  overestimated. 
They  result  more  often  in  intoxication  than  seems  to  be  the 
case  in  most  other  lands.  .  .  ."  "Some  time  ago  a  Stock- 
holm newspaper  compared  the  sums  which  Stockholm  wage- 
workers  put  out  on  cheap  spirits  (reckoned  after  Bolag  reports) 
with  that  expended  in  house  rent  by  the  same  class.  The 
proportion  is  indeed  abnormal,  being  4^  and  5  million  kroner 
respectively.  This  is  exclusive  of  beer  expenses,  which  are 
probably  even  greater  .  .  ."  (p.  81).  "Saturday  night 
drunkenness  is  extraordinarily  widespread  among  Stockholm's 
wage-workers.  .  .  .  The  drama  of  the  home-coming 
countryman,  liter  bottle  sticking  out  of  his  pocket,  traveling 
dtjwn  the  high  road  with  noise  and  disorder,  is  only  too  well 
known.  There  rarely  occurs  an  indignation-awakening  deed  of 
violence  which  is  not  connected  with  this  barbaric  gulping  down 


THE   GOTHENBURG  SYSTEM  31 

of  brandy  brought  home  (from  the  System  shop)  .  .  ." 
(p.  86).  "The  conditions  which  prevail  in  these  (Swedish  drunk- 
ards') homes  are  of  such  a  character  as  to  constitute  a  con- 
tinual source  of  astonishment  that  such  things  can  go  on,  year 
after  year  and  to  such  an  enormous  extent,  in  an  ordered 
society.  Fathers  pawn  the  most  necessary  household  articles 
and  clothing  if  the  wives  do  not  succeed  in  hiding  them.  They 
smash  up  in  their  drunken  state  furniture,  doors  and  windows, 
maltreat  their  wives  and  drive  them  and  the  children  out  of 
doors.  Thousands  of  women  in  our  land  go  to  sleep  at  night 
after  listening  to  the  most  dreadful  menaces  about  the  blood 
which  is  going  to  run," 

More  evidence !  "No  impartial  observer  would  be  wn'lling  to 
deny  the  highly  degrading  influence  which  Swedish  drinking 
habits  exert.  It  is  a  condition  of  things  to  which  every  one 
who  has  visited  other  European  lands  can  bear  witness  that, 
apart  from  the  poorest  quarters  in  English  ports,  and  possibly 
some  other  places,  one  rarely  meets  with  the  rough  and  dis- 
gusting conduct  of  drunken,  swearing  men,  which  one  is  com- 
pelled to  witness  so  often  in  our  land.  According  to  reports 
similar  scenes  are  numerous  in  Norway  and  Finland  (System 
countries).  When,  for  example,  the  pick  of  our  youth  are 
brought  together  for  entrance  into  their  military  service,  or 
when  they  leave  this  to  return  home,  they  have  been,  for 
decades,  accustomed  to  intoxicate  themselves  in  such  a  fashion 
as  to  cause  the  observer  to  turn  away  in  disgust.  First  in  later 
years,  and  not  the  least  because  of  the  energetic  intervention 
of  the  officers  (not  of  the  Gothenburg  System,)  has  an  im- 
provement been  brought  about.  .  .  .  During  Summer  eve- 
nings in  Stockholm,  when  one  or  more  warships  are  anchored 
out  in  the  stream,  a  drama  can  now  and  then  be  observed  at 
certain  hours,  which  is  without  parallel  in  other  lands.  Down 
at  Skeppsholm  the  seamen,  who  have  been  out  on  a  leave  of 
absence,  are  gathered  together.  Group  after  group  steers  its 
course   to    the    steam    launch    waiting    at    the    quay.      In    every 


32  THE   GOTHENBURG  SYSTEM 

group  are  carried  one  or  two  irretrievably  drunken  youngsters, 
and  with  a  skill  which  argues  long  practise,  the  waiting  under- 
olficer  manages  to  stow  away  these  young  men,  one  or  another 
sober  person  being  placed  on  each  side  of  a  drunken  seaman. 
Even  after  the  boat  has  left  land  one  hears  inarticulate  noises 
and  young,  strong  bodies  execute  uncontrolled  and  reeling 
movements"  (pp.  18,  19). 

On  p.  150  the  writers  speak  of  Sweden  as  "burdened  with 
alcohol  misery."  They  then  take  up  the  subject  of  the  restau- 
rants to  which  the  System  sublets  rights  of  sale.  "These  often 
make  nothing  on  food  sold  but  depend  altogether  for  profit  on 
drink."  The  wine-dealers  holding  Bolag  licenses  also  (p.  121  > 
"drive  their  spirits  business  completely  as  any  private  dealers. 
They  have  signs,  advertise  publicly  and  by  circular,  and  are 
often  part-owners  of  large  restaurants.  Their  full,  legitimate 
interest  is  to  push  up  the  consumption  of  spirits  to  the  highest 
possible  point.  .  .  .  Legally,  however,  these  wine-dealers 
occupy  an  in  no  way  enviable  position.  They  are  completely  in 
the  Bolag's  power.  This  can  prescribe  whatever  conditions  it 
wishes  and  sees  fitting.  Up  to  date  there  have  been  hardly  any 
indications  on  the  part  of  the  Bolag  of  intentions  to  take  any 
measures  save  those  by  which  the  Bolag's  income  could  be 
increased.  There  has  hardly  been  any  tendency  apparent  to 
do  away  with  the  private  spirit  sale  altogether  or  to  bring  over 
the  temperance-furthering  principles  on  which  the  Bolag  itself 
1^^  based."  "' 

On  p.  157  the  writers  remark:  "The  Bolag  u  forbidden 
to    sell    spirits    to    every    depraved    drunkard    that    comes    along, 

(1)  While  there  is  no  evidence  of  grraft  on  the  part  of  the 
Bolag.s  in  conneotiou  with  sub-let  licenses,  the  relation  mijjht  easily 
open  the  way  for  it.  A  company  rents  out  the  majority  of  its 
licenses;  the  profits  of  these  licensed  places  exceed  the  profits  of 
the  shops  which  it  operates  itself;  almost  six-sevenths  of  the  profits 
from  these  sublet  licenses  so  to  private  pockets,  and  special  privi- 
l^gres  are  granted  holders  of  sublet  licenses,  enabling  them  to  sell  not 
only  when  the  Bolag  shops  are  open,  but.  in  some  cases,  night  and 
day.  The  Stockholm  revisors  discover  that  these  license  holders,  at 
any   rate,   are   grafting  by   reporting  a   considerably  lower  sale  than 


THE   GOTHENBURG   SYSTEM  33 

Yet  violent  young  criminals,  drunkards  who  have  been  fined 
ten  times  in  a  year,  unknown  deliriants,  masses  of  alcoholized 
men  with  worn-out  wives  and  underfed  children,  individuals 
who,  in  their  outer  appearance,  bear  the  clear  marks  of  alco- 
holism, all  obtain  without  any  control  whatever,  in  liter  quan- 
tities, that  ware  which  has  made  them  what  they  are.  It  is 
not  at.  all  unusual  that  one  and  the  same  person  can  buy  at 
a  single  Bolag  shop  during  the  course  of  a  day  ten  liter  of  spirits, 
01  more,  to  retail  out"  (contrary  to  law)  ! 

On  p.  135  confession  is  made  to  the  notoriously  loose  en- 
forcement of  Swedish  liquor  laws.  On  p.  135  it  is  averred 
that  the  Bolags  compete  with  each  other.  On  pp.  123-24  att,en- 
tion  is  called  to  the  fact  that  Bolag  restaurants,  by  their  low 
price  of  food,  prevent  alcohol-free  restaurants  from  coming 
into  operation.  The  young  unmarried  men  who  frequent  the 
System  restaurants  spend  for  spirits  what  they  save  on  food. 
"And  the  poor,  self-supporting  women  who  most  of  all  need 
nourishing  and  well-prepared  food  never  visit  these  places, 
which,  without  doubt,  is  best  for  them." 

No  credit  is  given  to  the  System,  as  far  as  I  can  observe, 
for  reacting  against  Swedish  alcoholism.  Other  factors,  how- 
ever, are  mentioned.  P.  106 :  "The  country's  great  distanc3s, 
the  sparsity  of  population,  the  average  poor  economic  condition 
of  the  individual,  together  with  the  relative  difficulty  of  pro- 
curing spirits  in  the  country,  have  kept  down  total  consumption 
to  a  figure  considerably  lower  than  that  of  most  other  lands." 
And,  on  p.  114,  the  "decided  improvement  in  national  drinking 
customs    are    attributed    to    the    general    education,    the    steady 

actually  occurs,  in  this  way  holdins  back  money  due  the  Bolag 
(Stockholm  Report  for  1909,  p.  1119),  and  fine  twenty-one  of  them 
42,990  kroner.  In  1909  these  sublet  shops  sold  cheap  bottled  cognac  to 
the  amount  of  1,900,000  liters.  How  lively  this  sale  has  been  can  be 
gathered  from  the  1910  report  (p.  1152).  On  Midsummer  Day,  be- 
tween 12  and  2,  five  dealers  were  visited  by  1,215  purchasers,  and  on 
Dec.  4,  between  4  and  5,  six  were  visited  by  1,196!  This  did  not 
include  sales  by  telephone!  These  facts  might  help  to  explain  why 
more  drint  is  not  sold  in  the  Bolag-operated  shops. 


34  THE   GOTHENBURG  SYSTEM 

improvement  in  social  conditions  and  the  strong  temperance 
movement." 

The  proposals  for  reform  offered  by  this  committee  con- 
stitute a  pretty  serious  indictment  against  the  expounders  of 
Gothenburgism  for  misrepresentation.  Just  those  features  which 
these  gentlemen  have  stated  to  be  in  successful  operation  are 
here  proposed  as  promising  future  reforms.  Thus,  p.  149: 
'Tt  is  desirable  that  the  drink-shops  (of  the  G.  S.)  more  and 
more  develop  into  restaurants  where  a  glass  of  spirits  shall  not 
be  sold  without  food."  Then  follows  an  amazing  confession: 
"Bar  sale  without  food  can,  however,  with  the  present  system 
of  bottle  sale,  have  its  justification.  It  can  hardly  be  denied 
that  in  places  where  such  sales  are  done  away  with  many,  who 
were  content  to  go  into  a  saloon  several  times  a  day  to  take  a 
drink,  now  provide  themselves  with  a  liter  in  the  morning,  of 
which  little  remains  by  evening."  The  committee  also  argues 
(p.  143)  that  private  economic  interest  should  be  transferred 
from  alcohol  sale  to  the  sale  of  substitutes  for  alcohol  (coffee, 
berry  and  fruit  juices,  light  beer,  etc.).  What  we  have  been 
taught  to  be  accomplished  fact  is,  so  it  seems,  vague  Zukunfts- 
musik. 

Dr.  Gould  alleges  that  the  Gothenburg  System  has  divorced 
drink-selling  from  prostitution.  True!  But  Dr.  Scharffenberg 
affirms  that  the  neighborhood  of  Christiania  drink-shops  con- 
stitute an  operating-ground  for  prostitutes.  At  least,  add  others, 
the  Bolags  do  not  sell  drink  on  credit.  True!  But,  as  Mr. 
Ljungren  points  out,  there  is  nothing  to  prevent  the  pawn- 
shops from  taking  a  man's  last  rag  when  he  is  determined  to 
drink.  What  is  to  be  thought  of  the  sense  of  responsibility 
exhibited  by  those  who  deal  out  Samlag  licenses  in  Christiania 
who  for  years  allotted  a  license  to  the  Students'  Society  of 
the  University  for  the  sale  of  punch,  whisky  and  other  strong 
liquors  (this  in  addition  to  a  wine  and  beer  license  which  the 
students  still  operate)  ?  Three  years  ago  the  license  was  with- 
drawn because  of  scandalous  irregularities  in  its  operation — 
sale  to  others  than  students,   sale  after  midnight  and  exploita- 


THE  GOTHENBURG   SYSTEM  35 

tion  for  financial  profit.  Mr.  Davidson  remarks  that  Samlag 
partisans  are  less  and  less  inclined  to  take  part  in  public  dis- 
cussion during  local-option  fights.  In  view  of  such  facts  we 
do  not  wonder  at  it ! 

But  nothing  can  disconcert  Messrs.  Rowntree  and  Sherwell. 
In  "Monthly  Notes,"  April,  1912  (p.  7),  they  say: 

"As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  System  was  never  so  efficiently 
worked,  both  in  Norway  and  Sweden,  as  it  is  at  the  present 
time,  nor  was  its  administration  ever  so  free  from  abuses  and 
defects.'' 

This  is  bad  enough,  but  the  attempt  to  make  out  that  the 
temperance  leaders  in  Scandinavia  are  satisfied  with  the  present 
situation  is  indeed  inexcusable.  We  would  commend  as  suffi- 
cient proof  to  the  contrary  a  pamphlet  which  the  Norwegian 
temperance  party  has  printed  for  mass  distribution,  entitled  "Til 
Kamp  mot  Drukkenskapen."  One  of  the  writers  affirms  (p.  6) 
that,  on  an  average,  every  thirty-fifth  minute,  night  and  day, 
winter  and  summer,  from  January  first  to  the  next  New  Year's 
morning,  the  prison  doors  of  Christiania  open  to  receive  a 
drunken  man  or  woman.  "^ 

Professor  Jensen,  of  Bergen,  has  described  the  1907  Samlag 
votings  in  Norway.  In  many  places  people  stood  out  in  the 
rain  until  the  vote  was  counted.  When  word  came  that  the 
Samlag  was  turned  down  hats  would  come  off,  while  Gustaf 
Adolf's  hymn,  "God  is  Our  Strength,"  would  rise  from  all 
throats.  In  Dr.  Laquer's  monograph  we  read  of  country 
women  coming  in  from  outlying  places  to  help  town  women 
in  their  house  work,  so  that  all  might  get  to  the  polls  to  vote 
the   Samlag   out   of   existence.     In   the    last  general    meeting   of 

(1)  On  p.  12  Mr.  Isene  prints  a  striking  table  showing  how  the 
System  has  massed  its  shops  about  marlcet-places,  in  the  neighbor- 
ihood  of  wharves,  and  along  the  currents  of  traffic.  There  are  seven- 
teen parishes  in  Christiania  with  seventy-one  spirits  -shops,  retail 
and  otherwise.  More  than  half  of  these  (thirty-six)  are  pitched 
Into  one  parish  (Vor  Frelsers.  Our  Saviour's).  This  parish  has 
7,234  people  and  one  drink-shop  to  every  seventy-four  people  (in- 
cluding beer-shops  not  under  Samlag  control).  Three  parishes  with 
36,000  people  have  no  shop !  A  fourth  Kampen  has  one  to  8,447 
people. 


36  THE  GOTHENBURG  SYSTEM 

the  Norwegian  Temperance  Party,  at  Kristiansand  (December 
28,  1911),  Mr.  Hvidsten  spoke  of  the  attempts,  in  1907,  to 
restore  the  Samlags  in  towns  which  had  gotten  rid  of  them. 
This  happened  in  Risor,  Lillesand,  Farfund,  Stenkjaer,  Levan- 
ger  and  Porsgrund.  Of  the  7,535  votes  cast  950,  or  12%,  were 
wet;  6,585,  or  88%,  dry.  In  Risor  the  vote  stood  1,810  to  53 
against  the  return  of  the  Samlag. 

'More  and  more  apparent  is  the  drift  toward  prohibition  in 
both  Norway  and  Sweden.  During  a  lock-out  in  the  summer 
of  1911,  many  Samlags  were  closed  by  order  of  the  govern- 
ment, and  others  run  on  half  time.  The  result  was,  as  in 
Sweden  in  1909,  of  a  highly  educative  character.  In  Dram- 
men,  for  example,  arrests  for  drunkenness  fell  to  one-third  of 
the  usual  number  in  the  forty  days'  interim.  In  Sarpsborg 
there  were  but  2  against  60  in  the  preceding  weeks.  "Ny  Tid,"  a 
Socialist  paper  in  Trondhjem,  reported  that  as  a  result  of  this 
prohibition  experience  organized  labor  was  more  and  more  taken 
with  the  idea  of  a  systematic  campaign  for  shutting  up  the 
Trondhjem  Samlag  in  1913. 

When  the  weaknesses  of  the  Company  System  are  pointed 
out  many  object  that  these  can  be  corrected.  This  is,  perhaps 
true  of  some  of  them,  but  in  practise  they  have  not  been  cor- 
rected after  nearly  half  a  century.  Threatened  prohibition, 
however,  is  stirring  the  Bolag  people  to  the  thought,  at  least, 
of  better  courses.  Mr.  Andree,  director  of  the  Gothenburg 
Bolag,  proposes  that  bottled  goods  be  sold  henceforth  only  to 
persons  provided  with  an  authorization  card,  as  drugs  are  sold 
at  apothecary  shops  only  on  prescription.  But,  as  it  is  true 
that  the  relative  success  of  "regulation"  always  depends  on 
the  extent  of  prohibitory  sentiment  in  the  background,  so  it  is 
also  true  that  when  this  sentiment  has  actually  attained  political 
power  there  is  little  likelihood  of  its  being  satisfied  with  any- 
thing short  of  the  end  of  the  free  sale  of  the  narcotic  poison, 
alcohol. 

And  this   is  the   situation   in   Sweden. 


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